part three - Department of Immigration & Citizenship

Within the recent
graduate emigrant
stream, the dominant
group comprised persons
who had completed a
Bachelor degree as their
first tertiary qualification
and decided to seek
employment overseas.
In 1990 the dominant
field of study for those
with no previous postschool
qualification were
Business and
Administration (including
accounting) (20.2 per
cent); Arts, Humanities
and Social Sciences (15.6
per cent); Education (13.9
per cent); and Language,
Visual and Performing
Arts (11 per cent).
a Bachelor Pass or Honours degree, 22.6 per cent had an undergraduate diploma, and
9.7 per cent had a post-graduate degree or diploma. Bachelor Pass and Honours
degrees comprised 95.8 per cent of qualifications obtained by graduates with no
previous post-school qualification, in contrast to 55.9 per cent for the group who had
a previous tertiary qualification. Of those with a previous post-school qualification,
41.5 per cent had graduated in 1998 with a post-graduate award (Certificate,
Diploma, Masters or PhD).
A number of key points emerged:
●
●
●
Within the recent graduate emigrant stream, the dominant group comprised
persons who had completed a Bachelor degree as their first tertiary qualification
and decided to seek employment overseas.
Since the 1991 survey, the proportion of recent emigrant graduates seeking
employment overseas as a PhD graduate has steadily declined, while the
proportions seeking work overseas with a Masters degree has increased.
Those graduates with a Post-Graduate Diploma rose slightly to just over 20 per
cent of the stream in 1995, but fell away by almost half in 1998.
4 . 5 Fields of study
From the perspective of a possible ‘brain drain’ it is important to establish which were
the fields of study of the graduates going overseas to work. In 1990 the dominant field
of study for those with no previous post-school qualification were Business and
Administration (including accounting) (20.2 per cent); Arts, Humanities and Social
Sciences (15.6 per cent); Education (13.9 per cent); and Language, Visual and
Performing Arts (11 per cent). For graduates who had a previous post-school
qualification, the major fields of study were Education (21.4 per cent); Life and
General Sciences (15.3 per cent); and Business and Administration (including
accounting) (11.5 per cent).
Among all graduates from 1990 who were working overseas in 1991, 46.2 per cent
studied in Education (16.8 per cent); Business and Administration (including
accounting) (16.5 per cent) and Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences (12.9 per cent).
Table 4.3 shows the predominant fields of study within each level of qualification
possessed by 1990 graduates who were working overseas at 30 April 1991.
A number of points were derived from the chart:
●
●
●
●
●
Arts and Humanities and Social Sciences, Language, Visual and Performing Arts
and Business and Administration (including Accounting) were significant fields of
study for graduates with Bachelor degrees and Masters by coursework awards.
Education tended to produce high proportions of graduates at Degree and Diploma
level.
Engineering, Surveying and Science trained relatively large numbers of Honours
graduates.
Computing and IT fields of study were strongest at the Post-graduate Diploma
level.
Life Science and General Science and Mathematics had a high proportion of
graduates at Masters and PhD levels.
84 C E DA – Emigration from Australia: Economic ImplicationsJune 2001