Postgraduate destinations: employment characteristics of Australia's postgraduate completers

Australian Journal of Career Development, Autumn, 2008 by Anton Griffith, Bruce Guthrie

Postgraduate Destinations is an annual report produced by Graduate Careers Australia (GCA), concerning the work and study outcomes of recent graduates from postgraduate level courses offered at Australian higher education institutions. The report is based on the results of the Australian Graduate Survey (AGS), the nation's largest survey of higher education graduates, and complements other annual GCA reports such as Graduate Destinations, Graduate Salaries, Graduate Course Experience and Postgraduate Research Experience. Postgraduate Destinations 2006 (published in September 2007) was based on over 28 500 responses from postgraduates, including those with graduate and postgraduate certificates and diplomas, coursework masters degrees, research masters degrees, professional doctorates and PhDs. This article looks at some of the findings of the 2006 report.

Prospects for postgraduates continued to improve in 2006 with the median annual salary for a new postgraduate climbing to $60,000, up by $1,900 from 2005. This was $18,000 more than the median salary of bachelor degree graduates in 2006 ($42,000). (Note that the bachelor degree cohort this figure is based on differs from that used in GCA's Graduate Salaries 2006 report, as the latter restricts analysis to those in their first full-time employment and under 25 years of age.)

In addition to a salary increase, in 2006, a higher proportion of postgraduates were in full-time employment, than in 2005. Of those available for full-time employment, 89.9% of postgraduate respondents were working full-time at the time of the survey (this is up by 1.1% on the 2005 figure). Postgraduates were also more likely to have been in full-time employment than bachelor degree graduates (82.4%).

While bachelor degree outcomes are an interesting point of reference, it is worth noting that postgraduates are, as a group, older and more experienced and would be expected to have higher salaries and employment figures. Overall, postgraduate respondents to the AGS were 11 years older than bachelor graduates, at a median age of 34 years compared to 23 years. Postgraduates were also more likely than bachelor degree graduates to have been studying part-time during their qualification (61.1% as opposed to 16.7%) and to have been working during their final year of study (87.1% as compared to 81.4%).

Postgraduate outcomes by attendance type and level of award

Of those with PhDs and research masters qualifications who were available for full-time employment, 87.6% were in a full-time job. For coursework masters graduates, the figure was 89.4% and for those with graduate and postgraduate certificates and diplomas it was 90.9%.

Employment figures for various levels of post graduate award can differ markedly, with coursework degrees such as certificates, diplomas and masters degrees often being favoured by those already in employment or those active in the labour market. Research degrees such as PhDs and research masters qualifications are often favoured by those furthering a research interest developed in their undergraduate years. As such, the report generally examines three award-level groups separately: postgraduate diploma/certificate, masters coursework, and masters research/PhD.

The report found that of graduates who were available for full-time work, those who had attended study on a part-time basis were more likely to have found full-time work by the time of the survey. At the postgraduate diploma/certificate level of award, 95% of graduates who had attended part-time and were available for full-time work, were working full-time, compared with just 83.3 percent of those who had attended full-time. The equivalent figures for coursework masters graduates were 94.9% for part-time attendees, compared with 78.8% for full-time attendees. As a group, research masters/PhD graduates had the least difference in this regard, with 91.8% of part-time attendees available for full-time employment, in full-time employment, compared with 84.4% of full-time attendees available for, and in, full-time employment.

At a broader level, the most recently published unemployment figures looking at the Australian population (people aged 15-64) show that just 2.2% of those with a postgraduate degree (masters degrees or doctorates), 2.4% of those with a graduate diploma or graduate certificate and 2.4% of bachelor degree graduates were unemployed. Of those who had not completed any post-secondary education, 7.3% were unemployed, while the same figure for the population as a whole was 5.0% (ABS, 2006).

As well as varying employment rates, Postgraduate Destinations also showed salaries varied according to the level of award. The median salary for graduates with graduate diploma/certificate awards was $55 000 (up from $54 000 in 2005). For graduates with course work masters awards, this figure was $65 000 (up from $63 000 in 2005) and for graduates from research masters/PhD awards it was $60 700 (up from $59 000 in 2005). The relatively lower salary earned by research masters/PhD graduates compared with coursework masters graduates is indicative of the different career stages the two groups are at, with the latter being more likely to have worked while studying on a part-time basis and have more employment experience.