This article for 'The Conversation' suggests that three and a half years after finishing university, graduates who attended private schools earn an average of 7% more per year than graduates who went to state school.
Authors

Research Fellow University College London
Claire is a Research Fellow at IFS, working on the determinants and consequences of participation in childcare and education for parents and children.

Anna Vignoles
Comment details
- Publisher
- The Conversation
Suggested citation
Crawford, C and Vignoles, A. (2014). Private education wins higher salaries for young graduates [Comment] The Conversation. Available at: https://ifs.org.uk/articles/private-education-wins-higher-salaries-young-graduates (accessed: 10 February 2025).
More from IFS
Understand this issue

Share of apprenticeship budget spent on each apprenticeship level
The proportion of funding directed to higher-level apprenticeships (level 4 and above) has trebled between 2017–18 and 2021–22 from 13% to 39%.
16 January 2025

Why are universities in financial trouble?
21 August 2024

Do tariffs work?
We discuss the economic consequences of tariffs, why governments use them, and whether they actually achieve their intended goals.
23 January 2025
Policy analysis

How can policy boost productivity growth?
At this policy conference, four panels of experts will give their perspectives and recommendations on four key areas of the UK’s productivity problem.

Spending per pupil or student per year at different stages of education (2024–25 prices)
This chart compares the trends in public spending per student on various stages of education over time in England.
16 January 2025

Projecting options for 16–18 education spending per student after 2025, 2009–10 = 1
To maintain spending per student at 2025–26 levels, total funding would need to rise by almost £200 million in today's prices by the end of 2027–28.
16 January 2025
Academic research

Changes in marital sorting: theory and evidence from the US
Measuring how assortative matching differs between two economies is difficult, we show how the use of different measures can create different outcomes
27 November 2024

The effects of youth clubs on education and crime
Using quasi-experimental variation from austerity-related cuts, I provide the first causal estimates of youth clubs' effects on education and crime.
12 November 2024

Household responses to trade shocks
We study the impact of Chinese import competition in the 2000s on workers and their households in England and Wales.
12 November 2024