The Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia made a submission to the Education and Employment References Committee inquiry into Australian university graduates.
The Academy welcomes the committee’s focus on graduate employment outcomes, which has important implications for productivity, public confidence in universities and student wellbeing.
The inquiry was referred amid concerns about declining Australian graduate employment outcomes, based in part on headline figures from the Graduate Outcomes Survey. Our submission underscores the need for careful interpretation of graduate data given known data limitations and the importance of considering longer-term trends.
Our submission highlights that when multiple data sources are considered, the evidence suggests a system that is broadly stable but influenced by both cyclical and structural labour market forces. The key challenge is to improve how graduate outcomes are measured and interpreted, and to strengthen the broader system connecting education, labour demand, and economic growth.
We make three recommendations:
Recommendation 1: Endorse the Australian Universities Accord reforms that are underway to improve graduate outcomes, including those specified in the Australian Tertiary Education Commission Interim Statement of Strategic Priorities.
Recommendation 2: Address publication lags in the Quality Indicators for Learning and Teaching (QILT) Graduate Outcomes Survey.
Recommendation 3: Endorse Jobs and Skills Australia’s ongoing program of work to better understand graduate outcomes using multiple data sources, including longitudinal and linked administrative data, alongside analysis of key determinants of labour market outcomes.