Edinburgh University finance graduates earn the highest wages after Oxbridge, a study has revealed.
According to salary benchmarking site Emolument, Edinburgh finance graduates earn in the region of £84,000 a year plus bonuses. This figure is close to that of top tier universities such as Cambridge and Oxford, making Edinburgh highly successful in terms of graduate employment rates.
The largest financial centre in the UK
Edinburgh is the UK’s largest financial services centre outside of the capital London and currently stands as the fourth largest in Europe. Big name finance firms including the Royal Bank of Scotland and Scottish Widows both base their headquarters here.
A recent report, covering both the UK and Ireland, revealed the average salary for associate graduates and found they take home an average of £85,000 per year.
Alice Leguay, from Emolument.com, revealed that the top institutions for finance courses were not necessarily those that carry reputations for being businesses focused. Instead they tend to be the traditional red-brick universities which suggests recruiters are more interested in reputation and prestige over what course content.
However, employers are progressively respecting graduates studying at universities that offer vocational qualifications.
A tech-savvy turning point
Finance is most certainly becoming a more multifaceted industry, with many recent graduates choosing to specialise in areas of IT, economics and financial engineering. Further more, both scientific degrees and vocational technical subjects are proving equally popular in the world of investment charts – one good example of this is Imperial College London.
Ms Leguay suggested that the trend is expected to continue in the coming years. She put Edinburgh’s success down to its location and the fact it is a very prestigious university.
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