One in four graduates will lose financially from going to university, IFS estimates

Graduation day on London’s South Bank. The Department for Education says it plans to make proposals to cap student numbers for courses with poor outcomes. Photograph: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images

A quarter of UK graduates can expect to be financially worse off after going to university, especially those who take creative or performing arts degrees, according to new estimates by the Institute for Fiscal Studies.

The research is based on the pay of students who graduated in the teeth of the global financial crisis in 2008. While the IFS projects that the majority will be £100,000 better off in lifetime pay thanks to their degree, about 25% might have done better without entering higher education once their likely pay, student loans and taxes are added up.