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Gender pay gaps persist despite positive signs in 2021 Graduate Outcomes Survey .
By Wade Zaglas
The Social Research Centre has just released the 2021 Graduate Outcomes Survey – Longitudinal ( GOS-L ) report , which shows the COVID-19 pandemic and attendant lockdowns have not had the devastating effect that was predicted .
The GOS-L is an online survey that allows researchers , policymakers and other stakeholders to analyse what , career wise , is occurring in the lives of graduates who completed their studies three years ago and took part in the 2018 QILT Graduate Outcomes Survey ( GOS ).
UNDERGRADUATE OUTCOMES One of the most important findings was that full-time employment rates did not change dramatically across the country due to the pandemic .
“ As was the case in 2020 there were no significant impacts to the GOS-L results related to the COVID-19 pandemic because most states did not experience substantial lockdowns over the period of the survey . There was a small drop in undergraduate employment levels in 2021 ( 88.9 per cent in full-time employment ) compared with the same time in 2020 ( 90.1 per cent ), but this was in line with a general softening of the labour market ,” said Lisa Bolton , director of QILT Research and Strategy .
“ However , the 2021 GOS-L report shows that the undergraduate labour market outcomes improve substantially over the first three years after graduation .
“ In 2018 , 74.3 per cent of undergraduates who went on to complete the GOS-L were in full-time employment , four to six months after completing their course . In 2021 , the full-time employment rate for the same cohort of graduates had risen to 88.9 per cent .
“ This represents an increase of 14.6 percentage points in the full-time employment rate over the three years following graduation , which is lower than the 17.1 percentage point increase between 2017 and 2020 . This is because short-term employment rates for undergraduates were continuing to improve after the lows after the Global Financial Crisis in 2018 coupled with a slight decrease in the employment of this same cohort of graduates in the medium-term in 2021 .”
The 2021 report also highlighted that graduates of more ‘ generalist ’ study areas – arts and humanities , to use two examples – experience poorer employment outcomes in the short term but catch up over time .
In contrast , employment rates in socalled “ vocational ” disciples including rehabilitation , dentistry , medicine , pharmacy and engineering enjoy the highest rate three years after completing study , with almost all ( 95 per cent ) employed full-time .
“ However , the gap in employment outcomes across study areas narrows substantially over the three-year period from 43 percentage points between the highest and lowest to 22 percentage points , which shows that more generalist study areas start to catch up over time ,” the report said .
SALARIES , FULL-TIME EMPLOYMENT AND DIFFERENT INSTITUTIONS
The 2021 GOS-L report shone a light on undergraduate full-time employment rates and salaries broken down by institution ,
The report shows that the undergraduate labour market outcomes improve substantially over the first three years after graduation .
but not for the reasons one might suspect , including rankings .
“ This shows that undergraduates from some universities struggle to secure full-time employment immediately upon graduation , often because of the profile of their students and the study areas that institutions offer and the geographic location of their students ,” the report said .
“ Institutions with a higher proportion of graduates who are older and who studied online tend to have more graduates who are already established in the workforce and so start out with higher full-time employment rates ,” Bolton said .
PURSUING FURTHER FULL-TIME STUDY AFTER COMPLETING AN UNDERGRADUATE QUALIFICATION
The level of full-time employment among graduates is also affected by those who are still enrolled and completing further , full-time study . Humanities , science and mathematics , psychology , and culture and social sciences were subjects that had “ a relatively high proportion of students still enrolled in further full-time study in both the short-term and medium term ”. “ For example , 39.7 per cent of 2018 undergraduates in science and mathematics were in further full-time study , 35.1 percent of psychology and 26.0 per cent of humanities , culture and social sciences ,” the report concluded .
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