Employers give top marks to UniSC graduates | UniSC | University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia

The annual Australian Government’s Quality Indicators for Learning and Teaching Employer Satisfaction Survey is the largest of its kind in Australia and the only one nationally that links the experiences of graduates to the views of their direct supervisors.

On the back of a strong performance from the latest findings, UniSC ranks fifth in Australia for overall employer satisfaction with their new graduate employees with a score of 88.2 percent, based on combined results for 2021 to 2023.

Last year’s UniSC graduates exceeded the national rate of employer satisfaction overall, and across all five key performance indicators, in the 2023 survey results.

These attributes include foundation skills and knowledge, the ability to adapt and apply skills and knowledge and work independently, teamwork and interpersonal skills, technical skills and employability.

UniSC Vice-Chancellor and President, Professor Helen Bartlett, said the results show how highly employers value UniSC graduates.

“Almost 9 out of 10 supervisors say that based on their experience with our graduates, they are likely to consider hiring another graduate from the same course and our university,” Professor Bartlett said.

“This outstanding response reflects UniSC’s focus on providing quality learning experiences that empower creative, independent thinkers and prepare them to work in a changing world,” she said.

“Our goal is to ensure our graduates leave UniSC ready to meet the needs of the workplace, armed with the skills, knowledge and abilities to perform and innovate.” 

In other results, when asked if a graduate's qualification from UniSC prepared them 'well' or 'very well' for their current employment, more than 93 percent of supervisors agreed.

UniSC also rated strongly when supervisors indicated if the graduate's qualification was 'important' or 'very important' for their current role – 73.3 percent compared to the national figure of almost 63 percent.

The Employer Satisfaction Survey (ESS) is administered independently and centrally by the Social Research Centre on behalf of the Australian Department of Education as part of the national Quality Indicators for Learning and Teaching survey suite.

The 2023 ESS surveyed 6,647 direct supervisors of recent graduates from 109 Australian higher education institutions including universities and non-university higher education institutions.