The university degrees most likely to land graduates a job

Long before she finished school, Ann Duraid Shwaita knew she wanted to be a pharmacist.

“I’ve always had an interest in healthcare and providing help to people,” she said. “That’s been my dream since I was a kid.”

Shwaita, who graduated with honours from her bachelor of pharmacy degree at RMIT University in 2022 and finished her internship last year, now works five days a week across two pharmacies and as a locum. Eventually, she wants to buy her own pharmacy.

Like most pharmacy graduates, she had no trouble finding work after completing her internship.

“I didn’t even have to apply. It just happened through networking and people that I know,” she said. “It was so smooth and easy for me.”

According to federal government-endorsed data, 98 per cent of pharmacy graduates found a full-time job within six months of completing their degree last year.

However, despite them being snapped up quickly, results of the annual Quality Indicators for Learning and Teaching survey found pharmacy graduates entered the workforce as the worst paid, earning $55,500 a year.

Dentists, who started their careers on $94,400, earned the highest salary, while the median wage for an Australian university graduate last year was $71,000.

Funded by the federal Department of Education, the latest survey found that after pharmacy, the degrees most likely to land undergraduates a full-time job within six months were medicine (95.6 per cent), rehabilitation in the field of allied health (95.6 per cent) and veterinary science (92 per cent).

Just 53 per cent of creative arts and 65 per cent of communications graduates secured a full-time job in the six months after finishing their undergraduate degree.

Overall, more than half the 21 study areas surveyed recorded an increase in employment rates for undergraduates. Tourism, hospitality, personal services, sport and recreation were up significantly from 65 per cent in 2022 to 73 per cent last year.

Professor Janine Dixon, the director of Victoria University’s Centre of Policy Studies, said graduates working in healthcare and social assistance areas would find demand for their skills would only increase in the years to 2033.

This would particularly be the case for graduates in nursing and allied health, she said.

“In terms of the things that are going to shape the future of work [in 10 to 15 years], the three big trends would be care-type jobs because they are done face-to-face, then anything to do with renewable [energy] transition,” Dixon said.

“The third trend is around information, software engineering. Anything to do with digital skills, digital literacy.”

Among Victoria’s universities, the survey data showed that between 2021 and 2023 Monash University had the highest percentage of undergraduates entering full-time work, at 77.6 per cent.

La Trobe (76 per cent) was also above the national average of 75 per cent. It was followed by Swinburne (73 per cent) and pharmacist Shwaita’s alma mater, RMIT (69 per cent).

Last year, all La Trobe nursing graduates found full-time employment within six months, with early childhood education (94 per cent) and secondary education graduates (90 per cent) not far behind.

It’s a similar story at Victoria University, where a spokesperson said nursing and allied health graduates consistently led its employability rankings, along with teaching and education graduates.

At the Australian Catholic University, deputy vice chancellor (academic) Professor Julie Cogin said all of its computer technology graduates and 96 per cent of business management graduates secured a job after completing their undergraduate degree in 2023.

Nursing graduates had one of RMIT’s highest employability rates, a university spokesperson said, along with those who studied social work and business management.

At Swinburne University, undergraduates undertake placements, internships and industry-linked projects which often lead to jobs.

A spokesperson said more than a third of students who completed a placement unit and 20 per cent of students who engaged in internships received a job offer.

“We know that this real industry experience significantly increases our students’ industry connections, capabilities and employability,” the spokesperson said.

A University of Melbourne spokesperson said its curriculum structure meant almost half of its students completed one of seven undergraduate degrees followed by a specialist postgraduate degree before entering the workforce, skewing their undergraduate employment data.

Monash University did not respond before deadline.

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