Dentistry graduates are highest earners, art historians bottom of the heap

Dentistry is the most lucrative subject to study and new graduates find it easy to pick up work at a high salary, according to the latest issue of the Dutch university and college guide Keuze Studiegids 2017.

Students graduating in history of art and cultural studies are the least likely to find a job with a decent income. Some 15% of them earn below €900 a month, spokesman Frank Steenkamp told the Volkskrant.

Degrees in cultural anthropology, international law and environmental sciences also lead to low earnings. Many international law graduates, for example, end up working for NGOs where salaries are structurally low.

Almost all science graduates, particularly IT specialists, economics, physicists and chemists, easily find work when they graduate, with salaries of some €3,000 a month.

However, people with degrees in psychology, criminology, languages and biology are unlikely to earn more than €2,000, the guide shows.

‘You expect to graduate and find interesting and well-paid work,’ said Steenkamp. ‘But you might be disappointed. Between 2012 and 2014, almost 10% of graduates were without a job and a large number had found poorly-paid freelance work or were scraping by on a work experience place.’

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