International students suffer in the job market, new data shows

Domestic students do better in the job market than international students, according to a new large-scale survey.

Domestic students have better job prospects than international students, new data shows.

The first official data on international students’ success in the job market after graduation shows they have far worse employment outcomes than domestic graduates from Australian universities.

The 2021 International Graduates Outcomes Survey released on Tuesday, shows that only 43 per cent of international student graduates had a full-time job 4-6 months after completing their course, while 69 per cent of domestic graduates with bachelor-level degrees had found a full-time job in that period.

The picture is similar for those who completed postgraduate coursework degrees, which are very popular with international students. Only 44 per cent of international graduates from these degrees had a full-time job within 4-6 months of graduation, compared to 85 per cent of domestic postgraduate coursework students who had a full-time job within that time frame.

However the latter figures are likely to be skewed by the fact that many domestic students doing postgraduate coursework degrees are employed while they study part-time and thus continue in full-time work immediately after graduation.

The full-time employment rates are measured as a percentage of those graduates who are available for full-time work and are not affected by how many graduates opt for further study instead of seeking a job.

The survey is part of the federal government-backed Quality Indicators in Learning and Teaching, which are an official measure of universities’ success in educating students.

Over 35,000 international graduates responded to the survey last year, about one-third of those who were invited to participate. Although data on international student employment outcomes has long been collected, until now it has been kept under wraps.

The results also show that, among graduates who worked full-time after completing an undergraduate degree, international graduates earned a median salary of $54,300, significantly less than the $65,000 median salary of domestic graduates.

International graduates are also less likely to be in managerial or professional jobs, according to the survey. Of those in full-time jobs who have completed an undergraduate course, 58 per cent of international graduates are in a managerial or professional role compared to 68 per cent of domestic graduates.

The survey also shows that the Covid pandemic had a worse impact on the job prospects of international graduates then domestic graduates. But the survey’s historical data shows that, pre- Covid, international graduates still found it more difficult to find a full-time job than Australian graduates.

In 2019, before Covid, the full-time undergraduate employment rate for domestic graduates was 72 per cent while for international graduates it was 50 per cent, and this pattern is consistent back to 2016 when the survey began.

The survey also found that international graduates who had moved overseas had a higher full-time employment rate than those who remained in Australia, however the survey authors warn that this conclusion may not be fully reliable.