The university degrees delivering six-figure salaries for fresh graduates
Moderated by Tomas Kauer 
New research released today has revealed the university degrees giving fresh Australian graduates the best pathway towards earning six-figure salaries.
The Social Research Centre's Graduate Outcomes Survey for 2025 looked at the employment outcomes for about 50,000 undergraduates.
Their median salary was $91,000, an increase of 31 per cent from 2022.
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But graduates in fields such as medicine, software engineering, dentistry and civil engineering were earning a six-figure salary ahead of others.
Figures comparing what they earned about four months after graduating with what they took home three years later showed their pay rose by $30,000 or more.
Graduates in dentistry earned $89.700 upon leaving university, but three years later their salary swelled to almost $129,000.
From a starting salary of $80,00, graduates in medicine were being paid $115,000 after three years.
Engineers also recorded significant wage increases, starting at $71,000 soon after graduation, before their salary rises to $103,000.
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Graduates in law and computing and information systems were also paid $100,000 within three years of graduation.
Researchers say the results reflect a strong demand for higher education qualifications in Australia's tight jobs market.
The survey also found employment outcomes in the short-term for were stronger for graduates from more vocational study areas, but this gap narrowed after three years.
For example, more than 90 per cent of undergraduates from areas such as rehabilitation, pharmacy, and teacher education were employed full-time in managerial or professional jobs shortly after they finished their course.
By contrast, 54 per cent of full-time employed undergraduates from law and paralegal studies were working in managerial or professional jobs in the short-term – but this increased to 79 per cent after three years.
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