In February of 2022, the Higher Education Authority (HEA) published its findings of graduate outcomes of the class of 2020. This report analysed graduate’s financial earnings as well as other factors such as place of work or unemployment. The sample size was 13,668 graduates, which they then further split into “All graduates” and “Younger graduates” (graduates under 30). Graduates under 30 represented the majority of the sample size (10,136).
Among the HEA’s most significant findings is the gender pay gap, which stood at €4,740. However, when adjusted for controls, the gender pay gap decreased by almost 50% and stood at €2,391. This decreased even further to €1,500 when comparing only the salaries of younger graduates.
In another section of their report, the HEA analysed graduate earnings by the International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED). They compared the salaries of graduates who had a degree from either Information and Communication Technologies (IT), Engineering, Manufacturing and Construction, Education, Natural Sciences, Mathematics and Statistics, Health and Welfare, Business, Administration and Law, Social Sciences, Journalism and Information, Services, Agriculture, Forestry, Fisheries and Veterinary or Arts and Humanities.
They found that graduates from IT made, on average, €5,500 more than the average salary (€37,104). Engineering, Manufacturing and Construction as well as Education also reported higher-than-average earnings. Arts and Humanities graduates, however, reported the lowest salaries (€27,951). The same remained true for younger graduates, with the difference of Natural Sciences, Mathematics and Statistics as well as Health and Welfare overtaking Education.
Providing more course-specific data, the HEA found that the graduates from subjects like Dentistry, Education science, Pharmacy and Transport services have the highest earnings nine months after graduation.
Looking specifically at Trinity graduates, the HEA provides a comprehensive table of Trinity graduates’ employment outcomes by field of study. It must be noted that a large part of the sample size (5,893) wished not to disclose their earnings as well as that these figures are from the year 2022. On average, the field of study with the highest graduate salary is IT, with 22.2% of its graduates having earnings in the 40,000 to 44,999 range. IT is followed closely by Health and Welfare with 21% of its Trinity graduates earning in the 40,000 to 44,999 range. The lowest-paid field of study for Trinity graduates is Social Sciences, Journalism, and Information with 27% of its graduates earning in the 25,000 to 29,999 range.
Data from other universities such as University College Cork (UCC) or University College Dublin is comparable to Trinity’s with most of their graduates having earnings in the 30,000 to 34,999 range or the 35,000 to 39,999 range. Law and Business Administration graduates from UCC were, however, paid less on average than TCD graduates from the same field, with just over 37% earning in the 25,000 to 29,99 range and only 16% earning in the 30,00 to 34,999 range, while 34.3% of their TCD counterparts earned 30,000 to 34,999 euros per year and 21.4% earned in the 25,000 to 29,999 margins.
UCD and Trinity have similar graduate outcomes, though a larger portion of UCD graduates chose not to disclose their earnings. Over half of UCD IT graduates chose not to share their salaries, however, of those that did, over 10% earned upwards of 80,000 euros per year. In contrast, just 5% of TCD IT graduates are in the same salary category.
Lastly, the HEA provided information regarding the unemployment figures for Trinity students, which were at 3.3%, as opposed to 3.7% being the unemployment rate for all Undergraduate Honours Degree graduates in 2022. Additionally, over 12% of Trinity undergraduate degree holders continued studying further.
