Seventy three percent of DCU graduates find employment within six months of leaving college

Seventy three percent of DCU graduates were employed within six months of leaving college according to a survey of 3,136 students who graduated in 2014.

The DCU graduate employment figures show a growth of almost 5% compared to 2012 levels of 68.6%. The highest rate of employment was amongst Engineering and Computing graduates with over 85% of students finding work followed by DCU Business School (77%); Science and Health (72%); Open Education (71%); Humanities and Social Sciences (66%).

92.8% of the 3,136 DCU students surveyed were found to be either employed, or in an unpaid internship, undertaking further studies or not available for employment. 

The degree of relevancy of graduate employment to area of study found the highest level with graduates of the DCU Business School (93%); Engineering and Computing (90%); Science and Health (82%) and Humanities and Social Sciences (79%).

Deloitte, KPMG, IBM, HSE and the Department of Education were listed as the highest employers of DCU graduates. The data was compiled by DCU for the Higher Education Authority (HEA) First Destination Survey of 2014 graduates which was published by the HEA on Tuesday, May 2nd.

The report entitled “What graduates do? The Class of 2014. An analysis of the First Destination of University and College of Education Graduates is the 34th survey of graduates from universities and college of education in Ireland. It is an important indicator guide to graduate outcomes nine months after graduation.

The HEA Report included 18,500 graduate responses and found that over 65% were employed in Ireland with 12% employed overseas. 7% of all graduates are seeking employment, nine months after graduation. It also noted, that nine months after graduation, 58% are still in employment, in comparison to 51% in 2013.

Overall, it was found that Computer Science and ICT are the highest earners with over 62% earning €29,000 or more while Arts and Humanities graduates are the least well paid with 25% earning less than €13,000. Education, Agriculture/Veterinary and Computer Science/ICT Honours Graduates are most likely to consider their qualification to be very relevant to their area of study while 24% of Arts and Humanities rated their chosen area of study as irrelevant to their current type of employment.

To access the HEA report click here