Prospective university students must do a comprehensive risk analysis before enrolling at university. Check your motivation. Note plummeting academic standards. Can you pay the HECS debt? Will it stop you from getting a loan? Can you get a job on graduation? What are the quality of the courses? Are the lectures and seminars face-to-face? The tertiary education sector is in disarray. Buyer beware.
Australian students are less satisfied with their university degrees than ever before.
Less than three-quarters, or 74.9 per cent, of undergraduates were “overall satisfied”, according to the Quality Indicators for Learning and Teaching (QILT) survey, which looked at 120,000 graduates from 136 higher education providers, including all 42 Australian universities.
Satisfaction has been steadily declining since its peak of 80.6 per cent in 2020, with the survey linking satisfaction to job outcomes and suggesting students are struggling in the labour market.
Lana, 23, is questioning the value of her degree after spending more than five hours a day applying for more than 400 jobs over the last month with no luck.
“I have a degree, and I’m in debt, and I can’t get a job,” she said.
Lana studied a Bachelor of Science majoring in immunology after being told it was a growing field during COVID-19 and that it would “open up a world of possibilities”.
She has since discovered she will need to pursue further studies to be qualified for entry-level jobs in her field.
“I’m questioning if a degree means anything anymore because if, after studying at one of the most prestigious universities in Australia, I can’t get a job in my field to begin with, let alone any job on the market,” she said. “I am questioning, ‘What’s the point?'”
Lana said she “ticked off everything you could possibly tick off” during university to build up her CV, including joining the student union, clubs and societies, doing internships and working various part-time jobs. “I worked very hard … and it feels like we’ve been scammed.”
Graduates entering ‘competitive entry-level job market’
The most recent survey found full-time employment rates for domestic undergraduate students rose slightly to 75.4 per cent in 2025 but remained below the peak of 79 per cent in 2023.
The proportion of those with an undergraduate degree who were employed in a managerial or professional job shortly after completion fell to 67.3 per cent in 2025, down from 72.3 per cent in 2016.
The number of students pursuing further study rather than landing a job also rose, with 19.3 per cent of undergraduates and 8.2 per cent of postgraduate students now going on to further full-time study.
The survey found salaries for all domestic students increased slightly, with the average full-time salary for undergraduates lifting to $77,000 and postgraduate coursework students earning $104,700.
However, the SRC also highlighted a finding that just under 30 per cent of all graduates employed full time reported being “over-qualified”.
“In many cases, these are entry-level positions that don’t fully utilise their skills, roles taken while changing careers, or jobs outside their field because they haven’t yet been able to secure work aligned with their qualifications,” Dr Baker said.
Monash University higher education expert Andrew Norton said measures of satisfaction and employability were far more important for domestic students than global rankings, and noted satisfaction fell for the fifth year in a row in the QILT survey.
“The results are clearly off their post-lockdown peak. It has become slightly more difficult for new graduates to find full-time work,” said. “Graduates in IT have done particularly badly. Possibly they are suffering from AI affecting graduate jobs in IT.”
“This lack of contact – studying remotely – with other students has diminished the university experience for many and we can see this in declining satisfaction.”
Tips for students to improve employability
Consider doing a double degree or mixing a technical skill with a soft skill
Grow your personal brand, confidence and reliability
Build your work experience, get a part-time job, and consider volunteering
Look at your extracurricular activities to demonstrate that you can be part of a team
Grow your network by attending events on campus and joining societies
Understand the graduate recruitment timeline, process and how you can best prepare