What did they do next?Graduates from most of these subjects have substantially higher than average employment rates, an indication of the vocational nature of these subjects. Table 1 shows that well over 80% of medicine, nursing, physiotherapy and occupational therapy graduates were in employment six months following graduation, compared with an average of 63.3% for all graduates. Table 1: Destinations of biomedical graduates from 2007, six months after graduation | Numbers graduating (survey respondents) | Entering employment | Entering further study/training | Working and studying | Unemployed at time of survey | Other |
|---|
| Anatomy, physiology & pathology | 2875 | 69.2% | 14.1% | 5.5% | 4.6% | 6.5% | | Nursing | 9070 | 83.0% | 1.3% | 9.8% | 1.7% | 4.2% | | Medicine | 5145 | 86.0% | 5.1% | 6.4% | 0.2% | 2.3% | | Occupational therapy | 1040 | 85.0% | 1.0% | 3.6% | 5.3% | 5.2% | | Physiotherapy | 1755 | 84.4% | 1.8% | 4.2% | 4.3% | 5.2% | | Pharmacology, toxicology & pharmacy | 1825 | 67.3% | 10.9% | 16.1% | 2.1% | 3.6% | | All subjects | 209120 | 63.3% | 13.9% | 9.1% | 5.5% | 8.3% |
The majority of graduates of these biomedical subjects were females, ranging from 60% for medicine to over 90% for nursing and occupational therapy. Medicine86% of medicine graduates were in employment six months after graduation, the highest amongst all biomedical subjects. At 0.2%, it also has the lowest unemployment amongst all first degree subjects. Anatomy, physiology & pathologyThis subject category includes physiotherapy which is discussed further below. One in seven (14.1%) anatomy, physiology and pathology graduates continued to study (as a sole activity) after obtaining their first degree, reflecting a desire for these graduates to gain more specialist skills. For those who entered employment in the UK, half (49.4%) were working as physiotherapists. PhysiotherapyThe number of physiotherapy graduates rose by 7.4% from the previous year. Following a shortage of physiotherapist posts a year ago, the situation has improved slightly this year. 68% of physiotherapy graduates from 2007 working in the UK six months after graduation were working as physiotherapists, compared with 64.6% in 2006. Meanwhile, unemployment has fallen sharply from 7.9% in 2006 to 4.3% in 2007. Occupational therapy93.5% of occupational therapy graduates were females, which is even higher than for nursing at 91.3%. The vast majority of these graduates (79%) employed in the UK six months after graduation were working as occupational therapists. Pharmacology, toxicology & pharmacyAt 16.1%, a well above average percentage of these graduates were working and studying six months after graduation. The unemployment rate was 2.1%, which was substantially below that for all first degree subjects (5.5%). NursingThe vast majority (82.5%) of nursing graduates entered employment six months following graduation and another one in ten (9.8%) were working and studying. | 
