14 July 1997
Graduate Salaries Survey underlines the need limit HECS and exposes underutilisation of intellectual resources

A new report from the Graduate Careers Council of Australia (GCCA) shows that the 1996 median annual starting salary for bachelor degree graduates aged less than 25 and in their first full-time employment was $28,000. This represented the first rise in graduate salaries compared to average weekly earnings since 1988.

President of the Australian Vice-Chancellors' Committee (AVCC), Professor Fay Gale, launched the Graduate Starting Salaries, 1996 report at Parliament House in Canberra today.

Professor Gale said the GCCA figures were very useful in bringing some reality to the discussion about the capacity of graduates to repay debts. The survey shows that after at least 3 to 6 years of university study - and in many cases much more - the average income which most graduates can expect will be the very modest level of around $28,000.

"I think the conclusion to draw from the survey is that while it is likely that a university education will translate into some marginal private benefit for most graduates, the level of these benefits, particularly in earlier years, needs to be kept in perspective. Graduates are going into the workforce after years of doing with less and are being given some small reward for that sacrifice and the skills and knowledge they have acquired. Graduates generally might be doing better than non-graduates but industry and the nation as a whole are getting a very good deal."

Professor Gale said the slight improvement in graduate salaries compared with average weekly earnings was better than a decline but she said the improvement needed to be more significant if Australia expected to retain its best and most highly trained people. "In just under a decade, there has been a marginal improvement in the relative wage earning power of graduates compared with non-graduates. This is hardly indicative of a country that prizes its best and brightest, or a country that must look to transform its economy into one centred around intelligence based industries."

Professor Gale also focused on the nearly 20% of graduates who were not in employment as a sign of the underutilisation of the nation's resources. "While the survey shows that people with degrees are more likely to get jobs than people who don't have degrees, the fact remains that nearly 20 per cent of graduates are finding it difficult to get employment. That's 20 per cent of our best and brightest not utilising and developing the skills they have acquired and not applying them for the national good to our industries."

Media Inquiries: Greg Ellis

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