4. Postgraduate Taught Graduates


Postgraduate Taught Graduates: This includes graduates from Postgraduate Certificate, Postgraduate Diploma or Taught Masters programmes.

 

  • Overview of Graduate Population

    • 18,505 Postgraduate Taught Graduates (55.8% female; 44.2% male)
    • This consists of 80.7% Taught Masters, 12.3% PG Diplomas, and 7.0% PG Certificates
    • Median age of 27.3 years at time of graduation
    • The most common fields of study are Business, Administration & Law (33.3%), Education (13.2%), and Health & Welfare (12.8%)

Main Graduate Destination

84.9% in employment 9 months after graduation

Nine months after graduation, 84.9% of Postgraduate Taught graduates are in employment. In 2018, this was 88.4%. The proportion of graduates pursuing further study remained steady, at 4.0% in 2020, and 4.1% in 2018.

Unemployment has increased, at 8.9% in 2020, up from 4.4% in 2018. Largest increases in unemployment are observed in Services (9.6% in 2020; 1.9% in 2018), Arts & Humanities (15.6% in 2020; 8.4% in 2018) and Business, Administration & Law (10.3% in 2020; 4.1% in 2018).

 

Employment Outcomes

This section relates only to Postgraduate Taught graduates who are in employment nine months after graduation (84.9%).

63.9% employed in Professional Occupations

Almost 2 in 3 Postgraduate Taught graduates (63.9%) are employed in Professional Occupations, nine months after graduation. This is compared to 52.4% at Undergraduate Honours Degree level.

While 66.3% of females are employed in Professional Occupations, only 60.8% of males are employed in Professional Occupations. Nonetheless, a higher proportion of males are employed as Managers, Directors and Senior Officials (11.7%) than females (7.6%).

The most common sectors of employment for females are Education (25.4%), Human Health & Social Work Activities (18.4%), and Professional, Scientific & Technical Activities (11.4%). In contrast, the most common sectors for males are Professional, Scientific & Technical Activities (15.6%), Financial, Insurance & Real Estate Activities (14.2%), and Information & Communication (13.6%).

 

46.5% employed in Dublin

Most Postgraduate Taught graduates are employed in Ireland (89.2%), while 10.8% are employed Overseas.

Of those working in Ireland, Dublin is the most common county of employment (46.5%), followed by Cork (15.0%) and Galway (6.5%). Combined, these three counties account for 68.0% of Postgraduate Taught employment in Ireland. At Undergraduate Honours Degree level, this is 59.6%.

 

56.4% earning more than €35,000 per annum

Almost one-third of graduates do not disclose their salaries (30.3%). Of those who disclose their salaries, more than half (56.4%) earn more than €35,000 per annum. This is in contrast to 28.3% of Undergraduate Honours Degree graduates.

Meanwhile, 14.0% of Postgraduate Taught graduates earn less than €25,000 per annum. This is in contrast to 1 in 4 Undergraduate Honours Degree graduates (25.6%).

Nearly half of Postgraduate Taught graduates earning less than €14,999 per annum are graduates in part-time employment.

 

  • 1 in 4 completed Internships

    Internships are less common at Postgraduate Taught level, compared to Undergraduate Honours Degree level. Only 26.8% of Postgraduate Taught graduates have completed internships, compared to 61.6% of Undergraduate Honours Degree graduates. Only 15.5% of Business, Administration & Law graduates completed internships. At Undergraduate Honours Degree level, more than half (51.9%) completed internships as part of their course.

    At Postgraduate Taught level, internships tend to be shorter, with 10.4% of internships less than 6 weeks long (10.4%), compared to 4.2% at Undergraduate Honours Degree level. Similarly, 67.9% of Postgraduate Taught internships are more than 4 months long, while 77.6% of Honours Degree internships are more than 4 months long.

64.6% state that their course is relevant to their job

Nearly 2 in 3 believe that their course is relevant to their job (64.6%). For Undergraduate Honours Degree graduates, this is 55.7%.

One-fifth of Arts & Humanities graduates consider their course Very Irrelevant to their job (21.2%). At Undergraduate Honours Degree level, this is 31.9%.

Looking at need for qualification, 19.7% of Postgraduate Taught graduates are already in the job. At Undergraduate Honours Degree level, this tends to be less common, at 7.2%.

 

22.3% already worked there

The three most common sources of employment include already working there (22.3%), Recruitment Sites (18.2%) and Personal Contacts (12.9%).

Source of employment differs for Undergraduate Honours Degree graduates, where Personal Contacts have a larger role to play, accounting for 19.6% of employment.

 

Further Study Outcomes

This section relates only to graduates in further study nine months after graduation. Of all Postgraduate Taught graduates, only 4.0% pursue further study.

  • 1 in 3 pursued Doctoral programmes

    Of Taught Masters graduates who pursued further study, 40.8% pursued Doctoral programmes, while 33.0% pursued another Taught Masters. For Postgraduate Diploma graduates pursuing further study, the most common choice is to pursue a Taught Masters (59.0%).

    At Postgraduate Taught level, most graduates pursuing further study tend to pursue further study in the same field of study.

22.0% pursued further study to change / improve career options

The most common reasons for pursuing further study are to change or improve career options (22.0%), because it is a requirement for finding and progressing in future employment (17.8%), and ongoing professional development (17.3%).

In 2020, the reasons for pursuing further study are more related to employment than interest. In 2020, 39.8% cite employment reasons, compared to 29.9% in 2018. Moreover, only 6.6% of graduates in 2020 pursue further study because they had enjoyed their first course and wanted to continue studying. In 2018, this was 18.2%.

 

Engaged in Other Activities or Unemployed

In 2020, 8.9% of graduates are unemployed nine months after graduation. Moreover, 2.2% are engaged in other activities and not looking for work. This section relates only to Postgraduate Taught graduates who are Engaged in Other Activities or Unemployed nine months after graduation.

  • 58.4% have been looking for a job since graduation

    In 2020, 58.4% of Unemployed graduates have been unemployed and looking for a job since graduation. In 2018, this was 50.6%. Similar to Undergraduate Honours Degree graduates, resignation from employment as a reason for unemployment is less common in 2020 than in 2018. For Postgraduate Taught graduates, 6.3% resigned to seek employment elsewhere, down from 12.3% in 2018.

Graduate Reflections

This section relates to all Postgraduate Taught graduates surveyed.

70.6% likely to study the same course again

In 2020, 70.6% of graduates are Very Likely or Likely to study the same course again. This is up from 67.7% in 2018.

The likelihood of studying the same course again is slightly lower for Postgraduate Taught graduates (70.6%) than Undergraduate Honours Degree graduates (71.6%).

 

Next Chapter: Postgraduate Research Graduates

Note: filtering can result in a low number of graduates that fit specific criteria. Any criteria that result in less than five graduates being represented are excluded from the graphs in this report. Nonetheless, the Total provided will be inclusive of any excluded fields.