Notre Dame tops results

Perth's smallest university has beaten its four bigger rivals in a national employment and satisfaction survey, which found its graduates earned more than other students.  

The Graduate Outcomes Survey found Notre Dame has the highest full-time graduate employment rate in the state at 79.1 per cent; 12.2 per cent above Western Australia’s average, and 8.5 per cent above the national average.

Curtin University ranked second for the state at 67.8 per cent, while Edith Cowan University sat at 62.9 per cent, Murdoch University at 62.4 per cent and the University of Western Australia at 62.3 per cent.

Recent reports suggest 30 per cent of graduates nationally fail to gain work four months after leaving university, according to Notre Dame.

Notre Dame’s overall employment rate also scores high marks, at 91.9 per cent, 5.1 per cent above the state average and 4.4 per cent above the national average.

WA came out on top for the average annual income, with a state average of $60,500 compared with a national average of $58,000.

Notre Dame’s graduates were said to be the highest paid in WA with an average salary of $62,000.

ECU ranked second for the state with an average of $60,500 while the remaining WA universities averaged $60,000.

Other quality indicators from the survey assessed overall satisfaction of courses, experience of teaching practices at university, improvement of skills while at university, and the proportion of students undertaking further full-time study.

More than 120,700 graduates from across Australia responded to the GOS surveys in November 2016 and May 2017.