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A new survey by Sanctuary Search has raised a few questions with regards students’ expectations about graduate jobs in the UK.

According to the research, 89 per cent of students expect to secure a graduate job upon completing their university degree. Is it unrealistic for 9 out of every 10 students to be so certain that a university education will inevitably lead to a graduate job?

Furthermore, not only do such high numbers of students expect to land a graduate job, they also expect a very high level of remuneration from the day they start; 60 per cent of the students surveyed said that they expected to begin a graduate job on a salary of £25,000. With a current average starting salary of less than £20,000, again it seems that students may be setting the bar too high and thus facing the prospect of disappointment.

Almost three quarters of the students who were canvassed for their opinions acknowledged that the graduate job market was much tougher now than it was before the recession, but still thought that they would be able to find a graduate job at the end of their university degree.

The managing director of Sanctuary Search, Tom Freeman, said of the research: “Our survey shows that despite the increasingly challenging economic conditions, the expectations of students from top universities are similar to pre-recession expectations.”

What do you think? If you are studying at university then what chance do you think you will have of finding a job when you graduate? And, if you can secure a graduate role, then what level of salary do you expect to start out on?

Don’t forget, if you have already graduated – or will do later in the year – then you can gain access to hundreds of the latest graduate jobs right from the e4s website. Look now for some realistic options for graduates on our Graduate Job Search page.