The university degrees that will pay for themselves

Uni students are being urged to pursue courses that will guarantee a job on graduation. See the courses worth racking up a HECS debt for.

Future students should study degrees that will land them jobs in the most sought after professions, experts say, as the cost of university continues to soar.

The Herald Sun has compiled a list of the average cost of undergraduate degrees for the most popular professions in Australia and their respective graduate full-time salaries.

The top-earning graduates are from dentistry, earning an average of $100,000 per year – more than $20,000 higher than other study areas.

This was followed by medicine ($79,800), social work ($75,000), teacher education ($72,200) and engineering ($71,500).

The lowest paid profession for a graduate position is in pharmacy at $52,200, followed by tourism, hospitality, personal services, sport and recreation ($54,800) and creative arts ($56,800).

The cheapest degrees are in mathematics, agriculture and nursing, costing $12,372, and teacher education ($16,496).

The most expensive degrees are psychology and law, and paralegal studies, setting students back $60,568 for an undergraduate degree, followed by veterinary science and medicine at $59,000 and dentistry at $47,200.

Many of these professions require postgraduate study, adding tens of thousands more to students’ debt.

Sarah Megginson, money expert from comparison website Finder, said students should look at employment outcomes and in-demand jobs when considering what to study.

“Some of the most in-demand industries at the moment are medicine, allied health and engineering,” she said.

It comes as graduates’ Higher Education Loans Program debts – commonly known as HECS – this month soared to the highest level in the three decades since the government scheme began operating.

Dentistry graduates have the highest earning capacity immediately after graduation.

Indexation is added on June 1 each year to adjust debts in line with the consumer price index and cost of living.

Graduates face an average increase of more than $1700 a year on their debts under the new indexation rate of 7.1 per cent.

Ms Megginson said graduates are feeling “hopeless” about the prospect of ever being able to repay their loan.

“It can be a huge financial burden, especially for those who have taken out big loans to get a tertiary education,” she said.

Hospitality is among the lowest paid professions for new graduates.

Recent data released from the Futurity Investment Group revealed three in five Australians say their university debt has impacted their ability to purchase a home – a jump of nine per cent in the past three years.

One in three (35 per cent) said university costs had a big impact on their ability to start a family, up from 28 per cent in 2020, and 31 per cent said it stopped them from getting married.

The study, which surveyed more than 1,000 Australians who attended university, also found nearly half of respondents were struggling to purchase a car.

Some university graduates (16 per cent) also reported they were unable to afford medical and dental treatment.

Most people who attended university (68 per cent) have HECS debt in their 30s, and half are still paying it off in their 40s.

Current total outstanding HECS debt stands at $74.3bn for the financial year ending 2022, around four times as much as 2009.