University qualifications are delivering value to graduates and the economy, with Flinders University graduates showing strong outcomes in employment and salaries, according to new Government data.
The 2018 Graduate Outcome Survey – Longitudinal is a snapshot of short and medium-term employment and salaries as reported by those who graduated from their courses in late 2014-early 2015.
It shows that those who pursue further study continue to have stronger job prospects and earn higher incomes compared to those without tertiary qualifications.
Flinders’ medium-term full-time employment rate for postgraduates was seventh highest in the nation at 94%, with a median full-time salary in 2018 of $90,000.
The Flinders University undergraduate full-time employment rate in the medium-term was 88.8%, closely aligned with the national average 89.2%, as were the medium term full-time salary of $67,900 and overall employment rate of 92%.
Flinders Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Students) Professor Clare Pollock welcomes the findings.
“We’ve been focused on strengthening the employability and prospects for our undergraduates and postgraduates,” Professor Pollock says. “This report shows the results of our efforts.”
“We’re very pleased by the growing number of graduates finding full-time work, and work overall in the three years since graduating, and we expect further improvement as more recent investments to embed Innovation and Enterprise studies are increasingly reflected in results for today’s graduates.
“At the heart of our strategic vision is giving students exceptional learning opportunities and equipping them with the critical and innovative thinking skills needed for the future.”
Many of the jobs of the future do not yet exist. An estimated 70% of Australian graduates are starting careers in roles that will change or become obsolete within 10 to 15 years, according to The New World Order report (Foundation for Young Australians, 2015).
“So our challenge is to ready them for all possibilities. It’s why we are increasingly embedding our students within business and industry and creating a highly skilled future workforce which can build new jobs and increase prosperity,” Professor Pollock says.
“Instead of getting a job, our enterprising graduates might invent a new job.”
Start-ups contribute more than $160 billion to the Australian economy and are projected to create more than half a million jobs over the coming decades, according to Universities Australia (2018).
The Flinders University business incubator, the New Venture Institute at Tonsley Innovation District, has helped create 232 start-ups and skilled more than 3000 individuals in innovation and enterprise.