What do men and women earn once they have doctoral degrees, and do they stay in NZ?

Many thanks to Eddie Reisch who shared the following reports and findings. Makes for good reading, whether you are based in NZ or not.



The Ministry of Education has released reports on 2010 enrolments, what men and women earn after their tertiary education and whether people with doctoral degrees get jobs in New Zealand.


2010 tertiary education enrolments

This report provides a summary of information on students enrolled in tertiary education in 2010. In 2010, there were 466,000 students enrolled in formal tertiary study with tertiary education providers. From 2009 to 2010:

• The total number of students (including international students) decreased by 0.5 per cent, and the number of domestic students decreased by 1.1 per cent.
• However, when measured as equivalent full-time students, total study increased by 1.8 per cent and study by domestic students increased by 1.6 per cent.
• The shift from the lowest level qualifications (certificates 1 to 3) to higher-level qualifications (levels 4 to 10) continued. There were 13,300 fewer domestic students enrolled in level 1 to 3 certificates and 6,070 more students enrolled in higher-level qualifications.
• The number of domestic students aged 18 to 24 years increased in by 3.9 per cent. The participation rate for 18 to 19 year-olds in tertiary education increased by 0.8 percentage points to 48.4 per cent, and for 20 to 24 year-olds by 0.4 percentage points to 34.4 per cent.

Image by FUMCPC via Flickr

The full report is available on the Education Counts website, along with updated enrolment statistical tables.


What do men and women earn after their tertiary education?

This paper looks at the relationship between young peoples’ tertiary education qualifications and their employment and earnings once they finish their tertiary study. It has a particular focus on differences in the post-study earnings between males and females, using the Employment Outcomes of Tertiary Education dataset. Some key findings include:

• Earnings generally increase with the level of study and there is a premium for completing qualifications for both males and females.
• When controlling for participation in the labour market, males earn more than women after their tertiary education.
• These differences persist over the course of employment, but females’ earnings increase less than males’ over the four years post-study so that females earn less than males at all levels after four years.
• Females have a better return to tertiary education than males when measured by earnings premium over the national median earnings by gender but this may be in part due to the low overall baseline wages of females compared to males.
• There is evidence to suggest the better returns for women entering the workforce from study are due to gaining greater access to work.
• It is likely that labour market influences that have not been quantified in this study, such as industry and occupation worked in, also influence earnings differences between men and women after study. Future studies will make adjustments for these.

Image by ralph and jenny via Flickr

The full report is available on the Education Counts website.


Do people with doctoral degrees get jobs in New Zealand post study?

This study also used the Employment Outcome of Tertiary Education dataset to analyse what percentage of a cohort of recent domestic doctoral graduates was employed in New Zealand and their industry destination up to four years post study. The results show that:

• around 65 per cent were employed in New Zealand four years after they last studied. This was a lower rate of employment in New Zealand than domestic bachelors and masters graduates from the same leaving year.
• younger graduates, Asians, and graduates in ‘Natural and physical sciences’ were less likely to be employed in New Zealand four years after they last studied
• the domestic employment rate of the New Zealand doctoral cohort was lower than in similar leaving cohorts in Canada and the United Kingdom.

Image by Rennett Stowe via Flickr

The full report is available on the Education Counts website.

Related articles

• More women than men at universities (theage.com.au)