1. Main Graduate Destination


Main Graduate Destination: This refers to the single main activity graduates are doing nine months after graduation.

  • Main Graduate Destination Definitions

    There are a total of 7 main graduate destination categories. To aid understanding, these can be consolidated and referred to as:

    • Employment: Graduates are ‘in employment’ nine months after graduation if they are working full-time, part-time, or due to start a job in the next 3 months.
    • Further Study: Graduates are ‘in further study’ nine months after graduation if they are enrolled in either full-time or part-time further study and training.
    • Engaged in Other Activities: This includes graduates who are unemployed and not looking for work. Other activities may include caring for family members, travelling, volunteering, and any other activities.
    • Unemployed and Looking for Work: This includes graduates who are unemployed and looking for work nine months after graduation.

Overview of Graduate Population

  • Total number of graduates: 72,148
  • Response rate: 50.3%
  • 54% female graduates; 46% male graduates
  • 49.9% graduated from Undergraduate Honours Degree programmes; 24.7% graduated from Taught Masters programmes
  • The most common fields of study are Business, Administration & Law (27.2%), Health & Welfare (15.6%), and Arts & Humanities (11.7%)

 

81.9% of graduates are employed 9 months after graduation

Nine months after graduation, 81.9% of graduates are in employment. For the class of 2020, this was 75.9% and for the class of 2018, this was 80.1%. The proportion of graduates pursuing further study has decreased to 11.9% in 2021, down from 13.8% in 2020 and 13% in 2018.

Arts & Humanities (64.9%) and Natural Sciences, Mathematics & Statistics (71.6%) have the lowest proportion of graduates in employment nine months after graduation. However, both fields have a high proportion of graduates pursuing further study nine months after graduation (24.2% of Arts & Humanities graduates; 22.3% of Natural Sciences, Mathematics & Statistics graduates).

For the class of 2021, 4.2% of graduates are unemployed nine months after graduation. In 2020, this was 8.1% and in 2018 this was 4.3%. Unemployment is highest in Arts & Humanities (6.5%) and ICTs (6.3%).

  • Mode of Study

    The proportion of Full-Time graduates in employment has increased to 79.4% in 2021, from 72.4% in 2020. The proportion of Part-Time graduates in employment has also increased to 93.5% in 2021, up from 92.3% in 2020.

    Unemployment has decreased for Full-Time graduates, at 4.6% in 2021, down from 9.1% in 2020 – a decrease of 4.5 percentage points. The proportion of Part-Time graduates in unemployment has also decreased, to 1.8% in 2021, down from 3.4% in 2020.

 

Next Chapter: Level 6 & 7 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.