A new report sheds light on which areas suffer most from the “brain drain” of graduates.

For the UK as a whole, 71% of employed graduates remain close to their home regions for work, according to a report from the Higher Education Careers Services Unit (Hecsu).

But there is wide regional variation in what proportion of students from an area take on work there once they graduate and also what proportion stay on to work where they studied. Hecsu captures retention around the UK using figures on first degree graduates from 2012/13 who were employed in the UK six months after graduation.

Graduate retention around the UK



Northern Ireland had the highest retention of graduates and the east Midlands the lowest. Photograph: Hecsu, HESA’s Destinations of Leavers from Higher Education 2012/13

As the chart shows, Scotland and London also have relatively high retention rates both in terms of graduates originally domiciled in a region, and retention of graduates who were students in a region. Scotland is the leading region for retaining graduates originally domiciled there.



Outside London, the north-west retains more domiciled graduates and more students who studied locally than any other English region.

The east Midlands has the lowest retention of students of any UK region, with 39.2% of those who studied in the region in employment there six months after graduation.



Charlie Ball, head of higher education intelligence at Hecsu, notes two factors in the east Midlands’ relatively low retention rate. Its transport links mean many graduates may live there but are commuting to jobs in London. Secondly, universities in the east Midlands are “unusually popular” with people from other regions, particularly neighbouring ones, including the south-east and West Midlands.

The Hecsu Graduate Market Trends report shows:

25% of employed graduates moved away from their home region to study, but returned home to work. They made up a particularly large proportion of employed graduates in the east, south-east and West Midlands respectively. It calls these “returners”.

18% are “incomers” – working in a region where they neither studied nor were domiciled.

12% of employed graduates left their home region to study and stayed on there to work. Hecsu calls these “stayers”.

46% of employed graduates are “loyals”, who studied and worked in their home region.

In Northern Ireland, a large proportion of those going to university choose to stay in the region for their studies, says Ball.

He notes that while fighting brain drain has been a big part of regional economic policy, particularly as the UK seeks to redress geographic imbalances, there have been some disappointing trends in recent years. For those universities and local authorities seeking to keep graduates close, their job has been made harder by the recession and cuts to local government recruitment, he says.

The broadest trend is graduates are now a little less likely to stay close to the university where they studied and a little more likely to go to London. That’s obviously got implications for the regional agenda... public sector recruitment cuts will have weakened regional labour markets.

Ball recommends employers look to offer more jobs outside London and use the attractions of a relatively lower cost of living beyond the capital to recruit and retain graduates. And for graduates themselves he advises:

By and large most labour markets have graduate employment opportunities. You don’t have to go to London. If you go to London, you can do very well but an awful lot of people go to London. So they shouldn’t assume the streets of London are paved with gold ... There are a lot of graduates out of work in London and don’t think that with larger salaries there you will end up with more money in your pocket.

As to how the regions vary when it comes to where their graduates hail from, this chart shows “incomers” make up a particularly large proportion of employed graduates in London, the east of England and the south-east. “Loyals” make up a particularly large proportion in Scotland, Northern Ireland, Wales, the north-east and the north-west.

Loyals, Stayers, Returners and Incomers: where do the regions’ graduates come from?

