Affluent graduates earn more within months of leaving college

College graduates from affluent areas earn more than disadvantaged graduates within months of leaving higher education, new figures show.

The findings are contained in a socio-economic analysis by the Higher Education Authority (HEA) of the class of 2020, nine months after they finished college.

Overall, about 10 per cent of graduates earned more than €40,000 a year.

Using deprivation index data, 9 per cent of disadvantaged students earned more than €40,000, rising to 14 per cent among affluent graduates.

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This salary gap was larger at postgraduate level where 33 per cent of disadvantaged students earned more than €40,000 compared with 51 per cent of affluent graduates.

There was a similar pattern among low earners. An average of 12 per cent of all graduates earned less than €20,000 annually.

When broken down using a deprivation index, this rose to 15 per cent among those in disadvantaged areas and fell to 11 per cent among those from affluent areas.

Overall, students from disadvantaged areas account for 10 per cent of the student population in Irish higher education compared with 20 per cent from affluent areas.

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For some courses and sectors, the disparity is even greater.

The proportion of affluent undergraduate students was greatest in social sciences, journalism and information (25 per cent), followed by business and administration (22 per cent), and engineering and manufacturing (21 per cent).

The proportion of disadvantaged students was highest in courses in the area of services (14 per cent), arts and humanities, and health and welfare (10 per cent).

In terms of options following graduation, there were also marked differences.

Affluent graduates had the highest proportion pursuing further studies (17 per cent) compared with disadvantaged graduates (13 per cent).

Disadvantaged graduates reported the largest share of unemployed graduates (9 per cent), while affluent graduates reported the lowest share (6 per cent).

Overall, a majority (56 per cent) of graduates were working in so-called professional occupations.

A larger share of affluent graduates (60 per cent) were working in professional occupations compared with disadvantaged graduates (51 per cent).

This difference is largely explained by the fact that a larger share of disadvantaged graduates work in sales and customer service (10 per cent) and caring, leisure and other service occupations (7 per cent) than the overall average.

Chairman of the HEA, Michael Horgan, said the report’s findings added to the evidence base of tracking the post-graduation progress of various socio-economic groups under the Government’s National Access Plan, aimed at boosting the participation of underrepresented groups in higher education.

“We look forward to tracking these groups over the coming years and to seeing increasingly stronger outcomes for all our graduates,” he said.