EdUHK Survey: Starting Salary for Education Graduates Approaches HK$25,000
EdUHK Survey: Starting Salary for Education Graduates Approaches HK$25,000
Graduates of The Education University of Hong Kong (EdUHK) remain consistently competitive, as revealed by the University’s latest Graduate Employment Survey (GES). The average monthly starting salary for new graduates from its Bachelor of Education programmes reached HK$24,586, which is a record high representing a 7% year-on-year increase.
The 2016 GES found that 98% of the 483 Bachelor of Education graduates were employed or had chosen to further their studies within three months of graduation. A similarly high percentage applied to 142 graduates from the Postgraduate Diploma of Education (PGDE), 97.1% of whom were employed or had opted for further studies. Their average starting monthly salary stood at HK$25,202, an 8% increase compared to the previous year’s figure.
The Student Affairs Office conducts the GES from October to December each year to assess the employment status of EdUHK’s full-time graduates. A total of 625 new graduates from the full-time Bachelor of Education programmes and the PGDE participated in the 2016 survey.
Dr Yu Kar-ming, Dean of Students, said that “the encouraging survey findings are the best testimony that EdUHK’s professional training and nurturing offered for its students are highly recognised by the sector. As the birth rate continues to grow steadily and the secondary student intake continues to stablise, we remain positive about the career prospect of our graduates in the coming years.”
Dr Yu said he had every confidence that the education sector would be reassured by the government’s plans to add HK$5 billion to its annual recurrent expenditure on education for the implementation of measures such as improving class-to-teacher ratios, which will result in more permanent teaching posts, in addition to the successful launch of free childhood education in Hong Kong.
He added that despite the varying employment situation each year, figures from the past five years show that more than 90% of EdUHK graduates have entered the education sector, fuelling it with their professional knowledge and passion.
Professor May Cheng May-hung, Associate Vice President (Academic Affairs) cum Registrar, said, “Rapid social changes have prompted our society to place increasingly high expectations on teachers. The programmes at EdUHK, which attach great importance to both professional knowledge and classroom experience, equip teachers in multiple aspects to meet ever changing needs”.
Professor Cheng noted that in response to local demands for secondary school teachers in the upcoming years, EdUHK has since the 2015/16 academic year offered five-year BEd programmes in Business, Accounting and Financial Studies, History, Mathematics (Secondary), Chinese History, Science Education and Geography, expanding its programme offerings for secondary education.
As of May 2017, the University had received about 61,500 applications via JUPAS for its Bachelor’s degree programmes, a 2.3% increase over the 60,000 applications received in December 2016, i.e. by the first submission deadline for 2017 entry. The number of Band A applications increased by 4.0% since December last year to over 10,500. The number of applications for Bachelor of Education degree programmes has increased, with more than 8,250 Band A applications as at end of May, a rise of 4.2% from the 7,920 received in December 2016.
More than 3,835 applications had been received for the University’s PGDE programmes, and its taught doctoral and Master’s degree programmes have attracted more than 3,562 applications from 28 countries and regions so far.
In addition to pre-service graduates, the survey collected data from 218 graduates of EdUHK’s programmes complementary to Education, including the Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Language Studies, Bachelor of Social Sciences (Honours) in Global and Environmental Studies, Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Creative Arts and Culture, and Bachelor of Social Sciences (Honours) in Psychology.
Some 95% of these graduates had successfully secured employment or were pursuing further studies, with an average starting salary of HK$14,992, a 17% increase compared to the previous year’s figure. The fields in which they were engaged include education, business services, creative arts or design, community and social services, media and publication, and government and public organisations, among others.
Appendix I: Findings of Graduate Employment Survey 2016
Appendix II: Bios of the EdUHK graduate and students (Chinese Only)
