The latest Australian Government’s Quality Indicators for Learning and Teaching (QILT) has released the latest Employer Satisfaction Survey, revealing the higher education institutions leading in the field.
The 2019 Employer Satisfaction Survey (ESS) combined results from the 2017, 2018 and 2019 surveys providing over 14,700 employer responses to publish results at institution level for Australia’s universities.
The latest report found that in 2019, the overall satisfaction with graduates as rated by their direct supervisors was 84%.
The university where employer satisfaction was highest was Bond University at 95%.
The University of Divinity, Australian Catholic University and the University of Wollongong each ranked 90%, while Notre Dame University ranked fifth overall at 87.4%.
At the bottom of the list was Murdoch University (76.2%). The University of Western Australia ranked third last with 79.4%. Between them was Torrens University in Adelaide.
Satisfaction highest with Engineering and Health grads
Australian employers reported highest overall satisfaction with Engineering and Health graduates at 90%. In addition, supervisors
also reported above average satisfaction with Architecture and building graduates at 86% and Education graduates at 85%. On the other hand, employer satisfaction, while still quite high, appears lower for Creative Arts graduates, 75%, Management and commerce graduates, 80%, and Information technology graduates at 81%.
Supervisors expressed significantly higher levels of overall satisfaction with graduates who had studied internally, 85%, in comparison with graduates who had studied externally, 80%.
Employers appear less satisfied with postgraduate coursework graduates, 83% than with undergraduates, 84% and postgraduate research graduates, 86%, though in 2019 these differences were not statistically significant.
Employers reported higher overall satisfaction with graduates working in Professional occupations, 87%. This is consistent with higher education qualifications being more relevant for graduates working in those occupations.
On the lower end, employer satisfaction with recent graduates ‘collaborative skills was at 88%, while satisfaction with employability skills was at 85% -- the latter referring to the graduate’s ability to perform and innovate in the workplace.
“Results for employer satisfaction were slightly down across all areas in 2019 compared with peak levels reported in 2018,” the report read.
“However, note the changes in overall satisfaction and satisfaction with other graduate attributes were not statistically significant due to the relatively small number of responses from employers, as demonstrated by the presentation of confidence intervals”.