Postgraduate destinations data for Imperial Postgraduates in 2011 now available

Find out what Imperial postgraduates from 2011 have gone on to do after their studies.

Find out where Imperial Postgraduates go after they complete their courses

Every year the Careers Advisory Service conducts a survey on our graduates six months after they have left Imperial.  Following guidelines from the Higher Education Statistics Agency this research gives an extremely interesting resource which shows the range of careers open to our graduates, whether opting for further study or entering employment. The full range of data for each subject can be viewed at www.imperial.ac.uk/careers/resources/destinations/Postgraduates but we’ve highlighted some interesting results that arose from the survey below.

66% of Imperial Postgraduate students who finished their course in 2011 entered employment within 6 months of finishing. Earth Sciences and Engineering had the highest proportion of Postgraduates having entered employment six months after finishing their course with 90%, closely followed by the Business School on 89%, Humanities on 83% and Civil Engineering with 81%.

24% of Imperial Postgraduate students chose to continue their education by starting PhDs and taking up Post-Doctoral positions. As you would expect from research related courses, Chemistry and Physics had the highest proportion of postgrads continuing on to further study with 64% and 62% respectively. 

Only 5% of Imperial Postgraduates finishing their studies in 2011 were still seeking employment six months afterwards with the remaining 5% not available for employment, study or training.

Many students look to move into industries traditionally associated with their degree subject but opportunities are available for Imperial Postgraduates in a wide range of areas.  Education had the widest spread of subjects for Postgraduates entering employment with every subject except Aeronautics having at least one student entering the sector. Chemistry (40% of graduates entering employment) and Physics (38% of graduates entering employment) had the highest proportion of students entering the sector. As you’d expect from a university renowned for science and technology, Technical Consultancy was a popular destination for Imperial Postgraduates, particularly amongst Civil Engineers (50%), with only two subjects having no students entering the sector (Chemical Engineering and Computing) but Banking was also a popular destination, being the leading destination for Maths Postgraduates (39%) with only Civil Engineering and Electronic and Electrical Engineering having no graduates enter the sector.

Some subjects still maintained a progression into sectors more traditionally associated with them. 72% of Earth Science Postgraduates who entered employment went into the Oil/Mining sector and 52% of Computing and 33% of EEE Postgraduates who entered work entering the IT and Telecommunications sector. Manufacturing was popular with engineering related subjects with Aeronautics (47%) and Chemical Engineering (44%) listing it as the most popular sector for Postgraduates entering employment.

The Careers Advisory Service at Imperial offers a range of services to help Imperial students and recent Imperial Graduates improve their employability and work out the best careers path for them. More information about our services can be found at www.imperial.ac.uk/careers/ug/prospective/employability.

More information on the different Postgraduate courses available to Imperial can be found in the online Postgraduate prospectus.