University grads earn more, with HKU & CUHK alumni leading pay ranking

Latest figures show graduates from the city's eight universities earned an average annual salary of 336,000 dollars.

That's up 2% from a year earlier.

But the graduates' underemployment rates rose to 6%.

The University Grants Committee unveiled the employment figures of the city's eight publicly funded universities in the 2024-25 academic year.

While the bulk of the graduates have full-time employment, the proportion stands below 70%.

Nearly 20% opt for further studies.

The graduates' underemployment rates, meanwhile, rose 1.9 percentage point to 6.1%, marking new highs in recent years.

Human resource consultant Rebecca Chan says the underemployment rates are markedly higher than the city's overall figure -- and that's likely because of their preference for freelancing or part-time gigs, especially to explore their future paths in the first two years after graduation.

Noting that the youth unemployment rate has risen to 11 percent, Chan says beefing up their AI, communication skills and work attitude are key.

By institution, graduates from the University of Hong Kong topped the rankings with an average annual salary of 400,000 dollars, but the figure slipped by around 1,000 dollars compared with the previous year.

That's followed closely by graduates from the Chinese University of Hong Kong whose average annual salary rose nearly 4.7% to 399,000 dollars.

Education University graduates ranked third, earning an average of 353,000 dollars a year.

By discipline, medicine, dentistry and nursing graduates remained the best paid, with average annual earnings reaching 554,000 dollars.

Education graduates ranked second at 363,000 dollars, followed by science graduates.