University of Bristol: graduate outcomes
Earnings percentiles, sustained-employment rates, and the industries Bristol graduates go into, cross-referenced with the Home Office register of licensed visa sponsors. Source: Department for Education LEO, 2025 release.
Top-earning subjects at Bristol five years after graduation: Medicine and dentistry, Law, Engineering and technology.
Bristol medicine and dentistry graduates earn a median of £61,000 five years after graduating, and 95.5% are in sustained employment within a year (DfE LEO 2025 release).
Earnings by subject
| Years after graduation | Lower quartile | Median | Upper quartile | Graduates |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 yr | £33,000 | £39,500 | £49,500 | 80 |
| 3 yr | £42,500 | £51,500 | £61,500 | 80 |
| 5 yr | £49,000 | £61,000 | £78,000 | 80 |
Earnings are tax-year medians from the Longitudinal Educational Outcomes dataset, covering UK-domiciled graduates in Pay As You Earn employment. Percentiles show the 25th, median, and 75th earners in the cohort. Cells marked “—” are suppressed by DfE because the cohort is too small for safe reporting.
Sustained employment
“Sustained employment” counts graduates in PAYE employment for at least five of the six months of the measured window. “Sustained destination” adds further study. Both are total-cohort figures from LEO.
How Bristol earnings compare
Median earnings for Bristol’s top-earning subjects five years after graduation, against the median UK provider LEO tracks for the same subject.
Medicine and dentistry
+£3k vs UK medianLaw
+£3.5k vs UK medianEngineering and technology
+£3.3k vs UK medianFind visa sponsors hiring in these fields
Licensed UK visa sponsors hiring in these graduates’ fields (Human health & social work, Professional, scientific & technical, Information & communication), including Cognizant Worldwide Limited, ELYSIUM HEALTHCARE LIMITED, Accenture (UK) Limited. Every sponsor holds a current Home Office licence.
Considering Bristol as an international applicant? See international student trends at Bristol.
Methodology & attribution
Earnings and sustained-employment figures are drawn from the Department for Education LEO provider-level dataset (2025 release). LEO tracks UK-domiciled undergraduate leavers via HMRC PAYE, Student Loans Company, and DWP records, so international graduates working overseas are not captured. The sponsor-licence crossover uses the Home Office register of licensed sponsors (updated daily) filtered by the top three SIC sections for these subjects (mapped via LEO’s industry dataset).
LEO suppression rules (cohorts below threshold replaced with “—”) are applied per the DfE technical note.
Frequently asked questions
How much do Bristol graduates earn?
DfE LEO data (2025 release) shows Bristol medicine and dentistry graduates earned a median £61,000 five years after graduation. Earnings vary a lot by subject. The table above shows percentiles for every subject LEO tracks at Bristol.
What proportion of Bristol graduates are in sustained employment?
LEO reports 95.5% of Bristol medicine and dentistry graduates were in sustained employment one year after graduation. "Sustained" means PAYE employment for at least five of the six months of the measured window.
Are there UK visa sponsors hiring graduates from Bristol?
Hunt UK Visa Sponsors lists around 10 Home Office licensed sponsors that hire in the top industries for Bristol graduates. The sponsor-crossover module above links to each company profile.
Can international graduates from Bristol work in the UK after finishing?
Yes. Graduates of any UK university that holds a Student-sponsor licence, including Bristol, can apply for the Graduate visa (2 years for bachelor's/master's, 3 years for PhD) without needing a job offer. To stay longer, a graduate typically switches to the Skilled Worker route with a sponsoring employer, often drawn from the sponsors listed above.
Does LEO cover international students who went home after graduation?
No. LEO tracks PAYE and tax records in the UK, so graduates who left the country after finishing at Bristol aren't captured. That matters when you read the earnings figures: the cohort here is UK-domiciled, UK-employed graduates only. International students who remain in the UK on Graduate or Skilled Worker visas do show up in LEO once they're on PAYE.
When is the LEO data refreshed?
DfE publishes LEO once a year, typically in summer. The 2025 release on this page reports outcomes measured in the 2023/24 tax year, with the five-year cohort having graduated in 2017/18. We refresh this page from the new release each year, shortly after DfE publishes.