As staff move into its business school building and the University of Gloucestershire prepares to change up a gear, new figures reveal its investment is already benefitting students.

The latest data on higher education employment and earnings outcomes shows further improvements in the career prospects of graduates from the University of Gloucestershire.

Two sets of data from the Government on employment and earnings for higher education graduates. show good progress for University of Gloucestershire graduates moving into the all-important world of work.

Apparently some 95.3 per cent of its UK graduates from full-time, first-degree programmes went on to employment or further study in 2017 - an increase from 94.4 per cent on the previous year and its best result for at least a decade.

In England the average for all universities of 94.4 per cent.

Of those graduating from all types of courses in 2017 95.7 per cent went into employment or further study - up from 94.9 per cent.

And in what is an 11.1 per cent improvement over the last three years, 71.8 per cent of all graduates employed in the UK went into jobs categorised as "managerial or professional".

Stephen Marston, vice-chancellor at the University of Gloucestershire, said: "We work closely with employers to ensure that our students not only have the skills and qualifications, but also the wider experience, capability and confidence that employers look for when recruiting graduates."

He added: "These results show we are making good progress in helping our students get good jobs when they graduate. These days, with fees at over £9,000 a year, students and their parents expect that university will not just be a great experience in its own right, but will also lead to a great career.

"The work we do to develop our students' employability skills is central to our role in working with business partners to drive highly skilled, knowledge intensive innovation and growth in Gloucestershire, which is key to the future of our economy.

"Winning the top prize in this year's THELMA awards for our employer engagement programme was a brilliant recognition of the outstanding work of the Growth Hub."

The University's Growth Hub, based at the Oxstalls campus in Gloucester and initially funded by the Higher Education Funding Council for England, won the 2018 Times Higher Education Leadership and Management award for outstanding employer engagement.

Since opening in 2014 the Growth Hub has generated 13,655 work placements/internships for University students and has helped local businesses increase productivity and grow the economy in Gloucestershire, offering intensive support to over 900 high growth businesses to develop their business strategies.

From September 2018 the Growth Hub will be fully integrated and co-located in the University's brand new Business School opening at Oxstalls.