• Share on Facebook
  • Share on Facebook
  • Share on Linkedin
  • Share by email
  • Share on Facebook
  • Share on Facebook
  • Share on Linkedin
  • Share by email

A love of literature does little for the bank balance. But for those who choose creative careers, judging merit on money alone misses the point, writes Madeline Grant.

'Hold the front page. Humanities students aren’t brilliantly paid. Department for Education figures show that Oxbridge English graduates after five years earn on average £34,600 – more than £1,000 less than those who studied nursing at Brunel University. English graduates are a much-maligned group, and many will view these statistics as further evidence of their fecklessness. But let’s not cast students of literature as unemployable victims or dippy slackers who would be better off studying engineering.
As an English graduate who left Oxford five years ago, I am a guinea pig of sorts. How do my earnings compare to the average? I consider it indelicate to discuss money over dinner, let alone in the pages of a national newspaper, so I will merely say that this sum isn’t wildly off the mark. But it’s also unsurprising. Few nurses go into nursing to earn money; the same is true of English students. Even graduates of prestigious universities are content to earn less than their law or economics graduate peers, choosing creative, interesting but often poorly-paid work, in fields like publishing, art, education (and yes, journalism) rather than becoming a management consultant or doing the obligatory law conversion. And thank goodness for that.' ... Keep reading on The Telegraph