Being a Group of Eight graduate doesn’t inevitably mean higher earnings, the study also concludes.
A new study from Curtin University has some head-turning findings including nurses earning more than lawyers and that being a Group of Eight graduate doesn’t automatically mean significantly higher earnings.
The study is an analysis of data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia, a report from The Australian noted, and is published in the journal Economic Analysis and Policy.
Involving data from 1,650 graduates, the study found that nurses earn 19 percent more than lawyers and 23 percent more than teachers.
Other striking findings are that women earn about the same as men and that men with PhDs earn significantly less than men with bachelor degrees. Women earned just 3 percent less than men, statistically insignificant in light of other factors, according to the study.
Unsurprisingly medical graduates were found to have out-earned education graduates by about 50 percent.
In another report from The Australian about the same study, it was revealed that being a Group of Eight graduate meant little to earnings advantage when field of study and industry of employment are taken into account.
Compared to graduates of Group of Eight universities, graduates of Australian Technology Network universities earned just 0.1 percent less and graduates from Innovative Research Universities as well as unaligned universities approximately just 3 percent less.
The disadvantaged appear to come from Regional Universities Networks who earn 11 percent less than graduates of more prominent universities, but even then, the study notes that the difference may be a result of these institutions’ locations and the greater number of disadvantage students they usually have.
