Labour market outcomes of Australian university graduates from equity groups

Previous studies on outcomes of Australian university students from equity groups have been limited in terms of the scope of the outcomes analysed, concentrating mainly on university academic outcomes. The current study widens the evidence base in that it assesses a range of employment outcomes of disadvantaged students, and further, utilises data from multiple universities from one Australian state. Outcomes assessed include the probability of employment, qualification-job match, job quality, and earnings. Hence, the assessment of the graduates' labour market performance contributes by examining key outcomes which are primary motivating factors behind higher education access and equity policies. In addition, individuals in the key equity groups tend to belong to groups who face labour market disadvantage.

The paper is structured in the following manner. Section two reviews the literature on graduate labour market outcomes in Australia, with a focus on the studies on the various equity groups. Section three discusses the data and variables that will be used for the study, and presents descriptive statistics for selected variables. The methodological approach and estimating equations are discussed in section four. Empirical results are presented and discussed in section five, and structured around the various equity groups. Section six concludes.

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