The Graduate Outcomes survey records what UK doctoral graduates earn about 15 months after they finish. However, the most quoted postgraduate earnings figure, a working-age median of around £47,000, comes from the Department for Education and covers all postgraduates, not PhD holders alone. Anyone citing PhD graduate salary UK Graduate Outcomes survey data needs to keep those two sources apart. They measure different people at different points in a career, and people often merge them in press releases and funding bids.
This roundup sets out the figures that can be cited with a named source, for supervisors, graduate school staff, Doctoral Training Partnership (DTP) administrators and journalists. Each figure is paired with what it actually measures. It begins with the doctoral stipend that graduates are moving on from: £21,805 a year for 2026/27, set by UK Research and Innovation. It then moves through the Graduate Outcomes method, the DfE earnings premium and the share of research graduates who stay in academia.
Where no sector-wide dataset gives a doctorate-specific number, we say so rather than invent one. That applies above all to salary differences by gender, ethnicity and disability.
Key figures at a glance
The UKRI minimum doctoral stipend for 2026/27 is £21,805 a year, and £23,805 at London-based host institutions. These are the most precise doctoral income figures available in our sources. The table below collects every figure used in this article, with its source and reference period on the same row, so that each one can be quoted on its own.
| Measure | Figure | Population covered | Source and year |
|---|---|---|---|
| UKRI minimum doctoral stipend | £21,805 per year | UKRI-funded doctoral researchers | UKRI, 2026/27 (from 1 October 2026) |
| Stipend at London host institutions | £23,805 per year (baseline plus £2,000) | UKRI-funded researchers at London institutions | UKRI, 2026/27 |
| Tax status of stipend | Exempt from income tax and National Insurance; full-time researchers exempt from Council Tax | UKRI studentship holders | UKRI / UK HE guidance, cited via HESA, current rules |
| Graduate Outcomes census point | Roughly 15 months after completion | All UK higher education graduates, including doctoral | HESA / Jisc, current survey method |
| Research graduates in HE teaching or postdoctoral roles | Roughly one-fifth (about 20%) | Research postgraduate completers, at 15 months | HESA via Prospects, latest published analysis |
| Working-age median salary, postgraduates | Around £47,000 | All working-age postgraduate degree holders (taught and research) | DfE Graduate Labour Market Statistics, latest release |
| Working-age median salary, first-degree graduates | Around £30,000 | Working-age first-degree holders | DfE Graduate Labour Market Statistics, latest release |
Two rows need a caution. The DfE figures are rounded approximations as quoted by DfE. They are not doctorate-specific. The Prospects figure of roughly one-fifth is also an approximation and should be quoted with that wording, not as a precise percentage.
How the PhD graduate salary UK Graduate Outcomes survey data is collected
The Graduate Outcomes survey, run by HESA with Jisc, contacts all UK higher education graduates about 15 months after they complete their studies. Doctoral graduates are surveyed in the same exercise as undergraduates and taught postgraduates. That shared design shapes how PhD graduate salary UK Graduate Outcomes survey figures should be read.
What the 15-month census point means for doctoral graduates
Fifteen months is a short horizon for a doctorate. Many PhD graduates spend part of that time on viva corrections, a fixed-term contract or a first postdoctoral post. Salary data at this point describes the first rung of a career, not a settled earnings level. It sits close to the end of the stipend period and well before the working-age medians that DfE reports.
Why survey response limits what the data can support
Graduate Outcomes is a survey, not an administrative earnings record. Salary is self-reported and depends on who responds. HESA publishes response rates with each release, and readers should check them before drawing conclusions for small groups. These groups include a single discipline at a single university, or doctoral graduates broken down by protected characteristic. The doctoral population is much smaller than the undergraduate one, so the same response rate supports fewer fine-grained breakdowns. When a subgroup is small, the honest statement is that the survey cannot reliably support a salary figure for it.
What the survey does and does not tell you
- It does capture: activity at the census point (employment, further study, other activities), occupation type and, for respondents in employment, reported salary.
- It does not capture: long-run earnings trajectories, lifetime returns to a doctorate, or how earnings change once fixed-term academic contracts end.
- It cannot separate on its own: the effect of the doctorate from the effect of discipline, prior experience or age at entry. Mature and part-time doctoral graduates often bring pre-PhD careers with them.
If you need longer-horizon earnings, the DfE working-age series is the better source. It answers a different question, covered below.
The starting point: the 2026/27 UKRI stipend
UKRI sets the national minimum doctoral stipend at £21,805 a year for 2026/27, starting 1 October 2026. According to UKRI, the rate reflects ongoing adjustments aligned with national living wage frameworks. For researchers hosted at London institutions, UKRI adds £2,000 a year, which raises the baseline to £23,805.
| Stipend band | Annual amount | Tax and NI | Source and year |
|---|---|---|---|
| National minimum (outside London) | £21,805 | Exempt | UKRI, 2026/27 |
| London host institutions | £23,805 | Exempt | UKRI, 2026/27 |
| London weighting component | £2,000 | Exempt | UKRI, 2026/27 |
Why the stipend is not directly comparable with a salary
Stipends are exempt from income tax and National Insurance, and full-time doctoral researchers are exempt from Council Tax. Graduate Outcomes and DfE salary figures are gross employment earnings. A stipend of £21,805 therefore buys more take-home income than a gross salary of £21,805. Any comparison that sets the stipend next to a graduate salary without noting this overstates the step up in pay after the doctorate. Calculating take-home equivalents needs tax thresholds for the specific year, and those fall outside the sources used here.
The minimum stipend applies to UKRI-funded studentships. Institutional, charity and industry-funded studentships can differ. Our breakdown of UKRI doctoral training by research council and discipline shows which councils fund which fields, and therefore who the UKRI minimum actually covers.
The postgraduate earnings premium in DfE data
DfE Graduate Labour Market Statistics put the median nominal salary for working-age postgraduate degree holders at around £47,000. The equivalent figure for first-degree graduates is around £30,000. This is the most widely quoted evidence of a postgraduate earnings premium in England. It comes from the Department for Education, not from Graduate Outcomes.
| Group | Approximate working-age median salary | Source and year |
|---|---|---|
| Postgraduate degree holders (all types) | Around £47,000 | DfE Graduate Labour Market Statistics, latest release |
| First-degree graduates | Around £30,000 | DfE Graduate Labour Market Statistics, latest release |
| Difference (derived) | Around £17,000 | Calculated from the DfE figures above |
Three reasons not to quote £47,000 as a PhD salary
- It pools taught and research degrees. Master’s graduates far outnumber doctoral graduates, so the median largely reflects taught postgraduates.
- It covers the whole working age range. It includes people decades into their careers, not recent completers.
- It is nominal and rounded. DfE quotes it as an approximate median, and it should be reported with that wording.
The defensible statement is this: postgraduate degree holders as a whole earn a working-age median of around £47,000, according to DfE. This is roughly £17,000 above the first-degree median. The DfE figure does not isolate doctorates.
Where research graduates go: academic and non-academic roles
Roughly one-fifth of research postgraduate completers move into higher education teaching or academic research roles within 15 months. These include Research Associate and Postdoctoral Fellow posts. The figure comes from HESA destination data as summarised by Prospects.
The other side of that figure matters just as much for salary interpretation. Most research graduates captured at 15 months are not in academic teaching or postdoctoral posts. Graduate Outcomes salary data for doctoral graduates therefore mixes early-career academic pay with pay in industry, the public sector, the NHS, policy and consultancy. These labour markets reward a doctorate in very different ways.
| Destination group | Approximate share at 15 months | What it implies for salary data | Source and year |
|---|---|---|---|
| HE teaching or postdoctoral research roles | Roughly one-fifth | Often fixed-term posts on institutional pay scales | HESA via Prospects, latest published analysis |
| All other activities (non-academic employment, further study, other) | The remainder (derived) | Wide spread of sectors and pay structures | Derived from the above |
For a fuller picture of sector and occupation, see our roundup of UK PhD graduate career destinations and earnings. Publication record is often treated as a gateway to that one-fifth of academic posts. The evidence on how many papers a UK doctorate actually produces is useful context for supervisors advising on academic applications.
Gender and diversity statistics among UK doctoral researchers and pay
None of the sources reviewed for this article gives a doctorate-specific salary gap by gender, ethnicity or disability. Any precise figure quoted for these gaps should be traced to its own named release before it is repeated.
That gap in the evidence matters, because pay differences after a PhD are partly shaped earlier, by who gets funded. Gender and diversity statistics among UK doctoral researchers show which groups hold studentships at all. The stipend gap between funded and self-funded researchers then carries forward into who can afford to finish and compete for early-career posts. Our analysis of who gets a UKRI studentship sets out the diversity data on the funded population.
Why a reliable PhD pay gap figure is hard to produce
- Small cells: splitting an already small doctoral respondent group by characteristic and discipline quickly produces groups too small to report.
- Discipline mix: gender balance varies sharply by field, and field drives salary. A raw gap can mostly reflect subject choice.
- Mobility: international doctoral graduates who leave the UK after completion may be harder to follow at 15 months. Our international PhD student statistics cover the visa routes that shape who stays.
The sober position for policy writers is this. Diversity in doctoral funding is measurable from UKRI and HESA enrolment data. Diversity in doctoral earnings at 15 months needs a specific Graduate Outcomes breakdown with published response counts, and should not be inferred from all-postgraduate figures.
How to cite these figures without overclaiming
Each of the statements below can be lifted directly into a report, bid or article. Each names its source and its limits.
- UKRI set the minimum doctoral stipend at £21,805 a year for 2026/27, from 1 October 2026 (UKRI).
- UKRI-funded doctoral researchers at London host institutions receive an additional £2,000, giving a baseline of £23,805 for 2026/27 (UKRI).
- UKRI doctoral stipends are exempt from income tax and National Insurance, unlike the employment salaries reported in Graduate Outcomes (HESA).
- The Graduate Outcomes survey contacts UK graduates, including doctoral graduates, roughly 15 months after they complete (HESA / Jisc).
- Roughly one-fifth of research postgraduate completers enter HE teaching or postdoctoral research roles within 15 months (HESA via Prospects).
- Working-age postgraduate degree holders have a median salary of around £47,000, against around £30,000 for first-degree graduates. This covers all postgraduate degrees, not doctorates alone (DfE).
Common errors to avoid
The most frequent error is presenting the DfE postgraduate median as a PhD salary. The second is comparing a tax-free stipend with a gross salary as if the two were equivalent. The third is quoting Graduate Outcomes figures for small subgroups without checking response counts. Wellbeing research makes a related point: financial pressure and career uncertainty feature in doctoral experience data. Our reading of what PRES 2025 shows on wellbeing and supervision is useful context when salary expectations come up in supervision.
Doctoral researchers writing about graduate labour markets in their own thesis face the same citation discipline. They need each figure tied to its release, with taught and research populations kept apart. Tools such as Tesify can help keep a long bibliography of statistical releases consistently referenced in Harvard or a departmental house style. Checking that each number still matches its source remains the author’s job.
For researchers whose thesis analyses Graduate Outcomes or DfE earnings data directly, the hard part is usually structure. That means separating method, population definitions and limitations in a way examiners can follow. Tesify’s chapter planning can help lay out that structure before drafting begins.
Frequently asked questions
Does the Graduate Outcomes survey publish a PhD-specific salary?
The Graduate Outcomes survey, run by HESA and Jisc, collects salary data from doctoral graduates about 15 months after completion. None of the sources reviewed for this article gives a single headline PhD salary figure. Anyone needing one should use HESA’s own published tables for doctoral qualifiers and check the response counts behind them.
Is £47,000 the average salary for a UK PhD graduate?
No. DfE Graduate Labour Market Statistics give around £47,000 as the working-age median for all postgraduate degree holders, including taught master’s graduates and people well into their careers. It is not a doctorate-specific figure and should not be quoted as one.
How much is the UKRI PhD stipend in 2026/27?
UKRI set the minimum doctoral stipend at £21,805 a year for 2026/27, starting 1 October 2026. Researchers at London-based host institutions receive an extra £2,000, bringing the baseline to £23,805.
Why can’t a stipend be compared directly with a graduate salary?
UKRI stipends are exempt from income tax and National Insurance, and full-time doctoral researchers are exempt from Council Tax. Graduate Outcomes and DfE salaries are gross employment earnings. A stipend therefore provides more take-home income than a gross salary of the same headline amount.
What share of PhD graduates go into academic jobs?
Roughly one-fifth of research postgraduate completers enter higher education teaching or postdoctoral research roles within 15 months, according to HESA data summarised by Prospects. The figure is approximate and refers to the 15-month census point only.
Is there reliable data on the PhD graduate pay gap by gender or ethnicity?
The sources reviewed here do not provide a doctorate-specific pay gap by gender, ethnicity or disability. Small respondent numbers and differences in discipline mix make such figures hard to produce reliably. Any gap that is quoted should be traced to a named HESA release with its response counts.