News release

University Education Continues to Be a Good Investment, Says Report

Maritime Provinces Higher Education

Maritime university graduates continue to land better jobs and earn higher pay, says a new report released today, May 18, by the Maritime Provinces Higher Education Commission.

Five years after graduation, 73 per cent of the graduates from the class of 1999 had jobs requiring a university education and/or were classified as management, and they earned 25 per cent more than all working Canadians, says the report.

Five Years On: A Survey of Class of 1999 Maritime University Graduates tracks the outcomes of the same graduates at two and five years after graduation, and explores the transition between education and the work force, as well as student debt, and mobility.

It finds that the graduates' transition into the labour market depended to a large extent on the kind of program that was completed. Graduates of applied arts and sciences and professional programs -- whose education focussed on a specific job or profession -- experienced initial and sustained success in the labour market.

Many liberal arts and sciences graduates, however, faced initial challenges finding their "fit" in the labour market.

"A liberal arts and sciences education provides generic skills that graduates can apply across many fields," said Léandre Desjardins, acting chief executive officer of the commission. "Many do find that they have to go back to further study to increase their employability. For others, pursuing an advanced degree would have always been their ultimate goal."

The report said that further education is a key part of the transition to the work force for most graduates, even those from applied or professional programs. In fact, 72 per cent of those who completed their first degree in 1999 had returned to pursue further studies by 2004.

And with further education comes greater debts. Seventy-three per cent of the graduates had borrowed to finance either their 1999 degrees or some subsequent education, up 13 per cent from the 60 per cent who had borrowed in 1999. Average borrowing for education reached $28,078 by 2004, representing an average increase of almost $7,000 from 1999.

The report also showed graduates are successful in paying their debts; in the five years since graduating, they had reduced their debt by 53 per cent.

Sam Scully, chair of the advisory committee on information and analysis which oversaw the project, said the report shows that half of all graduates who completed their first university degree in 1999 carried no student-related debts five years later.

The report also examines graduate mobility patterns in some detail. It shows that the Maritime region retained 81 per cent of its 1999 university graduates in 2004, down six per cent from 2001. It finds that most graduates who left the region did so primarily for employment-related reasons.

The 2004 survey of the class of 1999 Maritime university graduates is the fifth in the commission's ongoing graduate survey program. It is available on the commission website at www.mphec.ca/english/pol_b.html .

The Maritime Provinces Higher Education Commission was established in 1974 to assist institutions and governments in enhancing a post-secondary learning environment. The commission's 19 members are drawn from the Maritime provinces, and represent higher education institutions, provincial governments and the general public.