4 university degrees to avoid if you want to be rich

Majority of unemployed university graduates have their degrees to blame.

4 university degrees to avoid if you want to be rich
© Getty/ Liliboas
4 university degrees to avoid if you want to be rich

The pandemic has not only drastically changed the way we work, but employees are becoming more assertive in what they want from their jobs and are not hesitating to make a career switch. But this luxury does not extend to all graduates entering the labour market for the first time due to varied reasons such as type of degree and skills. If you are thinking of pursuing education or switching careers, here are the four degrees to avoid based on employability and earning power.

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Creative Arts & Design

Statistics from loans company, Satsuma.co.uk, shows that Creative Arts & Design students are the least likely to be employed after completing school. A degree in this program offers students the opportunity to work in graphic designing, acting, animation, digital photography and all those other cool jobs. However, the average salary of someone with this degree in five years is £20,500, much lower than the UK average of £27,600 as of 2019.

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Agriculture

A degree in agriculture equips students with the necessary knowledge and skills to manage agriculture and farm businesses. This degree could also be used in fields like agricultural sales, food production and technical journalism. After graduation, agric students make £21,700 on average after five years.

Humanities & Liberal Arts

This is a broad discipline that includes subjects like history, philosophy, political science and psychology. Knowledge and skills got from these courses could be useful in diverse careers such as journalism, product marketing, acting among others. The myriad of job prospects does not translate into employability of high earning power though. Graduates with this degree earn about £17,800 in their first year after leaving school and £5,000 more in five years.

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Getty/ Stevica Mrdja / EyeEm

Communications

Subjects in this category include media studies, journalism and publishing. This degree can get you into journalism, public relations, advertising and so on. Sadly, many graduates with either of these majors are unemployed and those that are, make below the UK’s salary average; $16,500 in the first year and £26,600 in five years.

Other courses that do not guarantee employment or high income include Sociology and Social Policy, English language or foreign languages in general, anthropology, social services, biology and education.

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