What are the career pathways of our domestic bachelor graduates?

The first national Graduate Pathways Survey was conducted in 2008 by the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER). The survey aimed to collect information about graduate careers five years after graduation and measure graduate outcomes and satisfaction. All domestic bachelor degree graduates from 2002 were invited to participate in the survey. The institutional and national findings of the 2008 Graduate Pathways Survey (GPS) are now available.

Summary of ANU results

ANU achieved a response rate of 18.2% of domestic bachelor graduates from 2002 (compared with 12.1% nationally). Females were slightly over-represented in the ANU respondents. Humanities graduates were the largest proportion of ANU respondents, followed by Science and Economics/Commerce graduates. With a low response rate, all the institutional results should be treated with caution.

• ANU graduates' background characteristics (compared with national results) show we have slightly fewer regional/remote students (20.8% compared with 23.5%), a lower proportion of low SES students as measured at the end of primary school (8.2% vs 17.4%) and a lower proportion of students indicating neither parent has a university qualification (36.9% vs 51.0%).
• ANU graduates self assessed their general learning outcomes (writing, speaking, analytical skills, job-related skills and information technology use) at about the same level as national graduates (61.8 vs 60.7) .
• ANU graduates self assessed their general development outcomes (interaction with students from different backgrounds, relating class work to real world situations, understanding different social concepts, awareness of relevant industry needs) lower than national graduates (38.0 vs 44.7).
• ANU has a higher percentage of graduates in full time work five years after graduation (87.6% vs 74.6%) .
• ANU has a higher percentage of graduates in higher or vocational education five years after graduation (31.3% vs 28.5%).
• ANU graduates have higher median salaries, one ($42k vs $38k), three ($55k vs $48k) and five years ($74k vs $60k) after graduation.
• ANU graduates' median salary increased from being 11% higher (using rounded data from the report) than national graduates one year after graduation to 15% higher after three years and 23% higher after five years.
• ANU graduates rate their degree as beneficial for work (at the five year point) at similar levels to national graduates (68.7 vs 69.3).
• ANU graduates agree slightly more than national graduates that their degree prepared them for work at the five year point (60.8 vs 58.9).
• ANU graduates see less of a relationship between their degree and their occupation (at the five year point) than national graduates (65.4 vs 70.1).
• ANU graduates have similar levels of work satisfaction as national graduates (78.2 vs 77.4).
• ANU graduates have higher satisfaction levels for their entire university experience (74.5 vs 66.4), as well as the cost, time and effort (89.1 vs 77.6) .
• ANU graduates are more likely than their national counterparts to attend the same institution again (82.1 vs 73.1) as well as undertake the same degree again if they had to do it over (70.5 vs 64.4)
• ANU graduates perceive that the university could improve on student engagement at a higher rate than national graduates (63.0 vs 60.6)
• ANU graduates feel less strongly than national graduates that improvements can be made to staff and teaching (60.5 vs 67.3) , the focus of edcuation (62.3 vs 71.1) and the learning contexts (55.5 vs 63.5).

Report prepared by: Leone Nurbasari, Information Analyst, Statistical Services, September 2009 T: 54579