2004 graduates achieve high employment rate

Graduates of CityU have achieved a very high employment rate. About 96.2% of bachelor’s degree graduates were employed or pursued further studies in 2004, according to the Graduate Employment Survey conducted by the Career Centre of Student Development Services. The average monthly salary of employed bachelor’s degree graduates rose almost 8% to HK$9,411. The findings indicate that CityU graduates are highly sought after by employers. With the recovery of Hong Kong’s economy, graduates’ salary growth marked an end to the downward trend since 2001.

A total of 2,242 bachelor’s degree graduates from CityU’s three faculties (business, humanities & social sciences and science & engineering) and two schools (law and creative media) responded to the University’s graduate employment survey, a response rate of 94.6%. The survey indicated that by the end of 2004, 11.3% of bachelor’s degree graduates pursued further studies. CityU remained their preferred choice among local institutions. About 2.6% of the graduates were still seeking jobs, and among them 35.1% had been offered one or more jobs by employers.

The Private sector remained the prime employment sector, absorbing over 85% of the full-time employed degree graduates, (up from 81.5% in 2003), followed by 6.6% joining the Education sector -- a reduction from 8.4% in 2003. Non-profit organizations absorbed 5% of CityU degree graduates and the Government sector 2.7%. The most popular field was Marketing and Sales (14.8%), followed by Administration and Management (12.9%), Accounting and Taxation (12.7%), Engineering (9.7%) and System Analyst/Computer Programming (6.8%).

CityU offers professional education that grooms high calibre graduates, with special emphasis on full integration of the learning and working experience. Through internship and work placement schemes, many CityU students receive job offers from host institutions before graduation. One example is Eric Siu, a bachelor’s degree graduate who majored in mathematics. “During my nine-month placement in Standard Chartered Bank, I could apply my data mining skills learned in class to an authentic business environment. The job exposure and other practical skills I acquired have greatly enhanced my career prospects,” Eric said. Participating in the Faculty of Science and Engineering’s Co-operative Education Scheme, Eric and three other CityU students received job offers from Standard Chartered Bank following the placement.

“These encouraging results prove that our graduates impress employers with their academic excellence, vocational competence and devotion to work. These qualities are in demand in the employment market,” said Mr Joseph Chan, Director of Student Development Services. “To help students prepare for long-term professional development, we are committed to enhancing students’ lifelong employability and aligning professional education to the changing needs of employers,” he added.

This year, in addition to ongoing internship schemes organized in Hong Kong, on the mainland and overseas, the University has launched the On-campus Service Learning Scheme to provide 1,000 on-campus job placements for students. Apart from on-the-job training, students receive ample opportunities to acquire practical skills through a wide variety of learning experiences such as aptitude/personality tests, management skills training and overseas/mainland professional conferences.

With regard to graduates of CityU’s Government-funded associate degree programmes offered by the School of Creative Media and the Division of Building Science and Technology, 418 associate degree graduates responded to the survey, a response rate of 94.8%. The gross monthly income of employed associate degree graduates rose to HK$7,929 from 2003’s HK$7,372 -- an increase of 7.6 %. 43.8% of the respondents pursued full-time further studies and CityU continued to be their preferred local institution.