There is backslapping and tub-thumping among regional universities that look good for UG employment and pay on the new grad outcomes survey. (CMM November 16)
This may have much to do with the sort of people that study at regionals, as well as the undoubted excellence of the institutions.
As the very good indeed Quality Indicators for Learning and Teaching, which produced the survey, puts it;
“graduates from regional universities are more likely to be older, study externally and part-time and maintain a continuing connection with the labour market which explains, in part, why graduates from these universities may have fared better in the current downturn. Also graduates from regional universities are more likely to have completed vocational degrees … these graduates have also fared better in the current downturn.”