Women uni graduates surpass PM's target

MORE than 40 per cent of young women have a bachelor degree or higher qualification, achieving Labor's target more than 10 years early.

MORE than 40 per cent of young women now have a bachelor degree or higher qualification, achieving the Gillard government's target more than 10 years early, but young men are still lagging, with only 30 per cent having a degree.

The latest figures show that the government is well on the way to achieving its target to boost the qualifications of Australians through its expansion of university places. It also highlights a growing "feminisation" of higher education as young men are drawn to the trades and the mining boom, while traditional female occupations such as healthcare increasingly require degrees.

About 60 per cent of all undergraduate students are women, as are 58 per cent of postgraduates. While more women than men have bachelor degrees, the starting salaries of female graduates still trail that of male graduates. According to Graduate Careers Australia, the starting salaries of female graduates aged under 25 average $50,000, compared with $52,000 for men.

In 2009, the government adopted a target of increasing the proportion of 25- to 34-year-olds with a bachelor degree or higher qualification from 32 per cent to 40 per cent by 2025.

Women have already achieved that proportion, but across both sexes bachelor degree attainment is about 35 per cent.

The disparity between females and males has widened from 2002 when, among 25- to 29-year-olds, about 29 per cent of women had degrees compared with 22 per cent of men.