Employers shun overseas graduates: surveys

International higher education students are almost a third less likely than their domestic counterparts to find work when they graduate, with employers shunning them in the tightened labour market. According to the most recent Australian Graduate Survey, which attracted around 120,000 responses, only 61 per cent of international higher education graduates had full-time jobs – either in Australia or elsewhere – four months after they graduated. This compared to 87 per cent of domestic graduates. David Carroll, research associate with Graduate Careers Australia (GCA), said international graduates were experiencing relatively poor employment outcomes even though their labour market expectations were almost on par with those of domestic students. He said GCA’s latest University and Beyond survey, which attracted 55,000 respondents, had found that 93 per cent of domestic students expected to find work. International students weren’t that far behind, at 83 per cent. Carroll told this month’s Australian International Education Conference that graduates from China – the largest source market – had fared worst, with 49 per cent securing full-time work within four months. Students from Malaysia, India and Singapore did better, at 64, 65 and 71 per cent respectively. In terms of fields of study, international science students fared worst with an employment rate of 63 per cent. But students of business, accounting and economics – which accounted for around 48 per cent of all overseas enrolments – weren’t far ahead. Their employment rate was 65 per cent, even though 84 per cent had said they expected to find work. Carroll said it wasn’t all bad news, with 90 per cent of international health, medical and dentistry graduates employed within four months – even though only 84 per cent had expected to find work. But they were the exception. In most other fields, international students were employed at rates significantly lower than their expectations. Carroll said there would be further bad news if the findings of GCA’s latest Graduate Outlook Survey – which tallied the recruiting intentions of several hundred employers – flowed through to the labour market. Since this survey started, the proportion of respondents claiming to employ international graduates has risen steadily from around 15 per cent in 2005 to 35 per cent last year. But recruitment intentions hit a major snag this year, nosediving to around 20 per cent. Recruitment prospects appear particularly dire for international students in legal and professional services. Only 11 per cent of employers in these fields said they planned to recruit international graduates this year, compared to around 50 per cent last year. This suggests major disappointment in the wings for current international law students. They’ve had higher labour market expectations than overseas students in any other field, with around 95 per cent saying they expected to find work. Employers told GCA they were concerned about visa problems if they hired non-resident graduates. They were also concerned about communication issues, both verbal and written. In this respect, their perception echoed international graduates’ self-perception. The University and Beyond survey found no difference in the way international and domestic students rated their own technical professional skills, but international students rated themselves considerably lower on generic employability skills such as teamwork, self-management, problem solving, planning and particularly on communication. But possibly the biggest factor working against international students, employers said, was that there was no longer a shortage of local applicants – suggesting international students, like teenagers, could be among the first to suffer when the labour market heads south. “If people are able to recruit from the local market, they tend to avoid the more costly and troublesome process of arranging visas and all that,” Carroll said. Carroll suggested the plummeting employer recruitment intentions were about pragmatism, not prejudice. “Only one person throughout the five years of the survey said they only hired born-and-bred Aussies – a lot of people said they aimed to recruit the best graduates, and they considered residency status irrelevant to that,” he said. Meanwhile the GCA surveys revealed ironies in international students’ approach to education and work. While overseas students don’t have as good an experience of university as their domestic counterparts, they’re nevertheless more likely to contemplate further study. And though they expect to earn less than their domestic counterparts once they’ve graduated, they’re more likely to choose jobs based on the salary offered. Carroll said domestic university students rated their course experience more highly than their international counterparts on every indicator, particularly workload and assessment. According to GCA’s most recent graduate Course Experience Survey, 69 per cent of international students thought they’d received inappropriate assessment and 72 per cent thought they were overworked. The scores for domestic students were 48 and 58 per cent respectively. Yet 29 per cent of international students go on to further study, compared to just 19 per cent of domestic students, according to the Universities and Beyond Survey. “This doesn’t necessarily indicate they’re going on to further study because that was what they’d always intended to do – it could be related to a lack of labour market opportunities,” Carroll said. Students’ migration intentions also appeared to change during their time in Australia. When they first arrived, Carroll said, two thirds of international HE students said they intended to stay in Australia and around 95 per cent of these planned to obtain permanent residency before or immediately after graduating. “Students from India were the most likely to intend to stay, at 86 per cent,” he said. But these plans tapered off as students progressed through their courses, Carroll said. Steve Nerlich, director of DEEWR’s International Research and Analysis Unit, told the conference that figures from the Department of Immigration and Citizenship suggested that only 25 to 35 per cent of international graduates actually applied to migrate. Go to www.aiec.idp.com/PDF/2009_Carroll_Wed_1100_B104.pdf