ERIC Number: EJ1060074
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2014-Jul
Pages: 9
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1443-2110
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Available Date: N/A
An Investigation of the Relationship between University Rankings and Graduate Starting Wages
Carroll, David
Journal of Institutional Research, v19 n1 p46-54 Jul 2014
The rise of global university rankings has garnered much attention in recent years. Various ranking systems exist, but all are conceptually similar in that universities are evaluated and ranked on the basis of comparable indicators, with a focus on research performance. Although these rankings are widely criticised as over-simplistic and methodologically deficient, there may be advantages to attending a well-ranked university. According to a recent Backgrounder on university rankings published by the Group of Eight (Go8), being well ranked globally can have positive effects on graduate employment and earnings. In this article I investigate this proposition in the context of the Australian graduate labour market. Specifically, I use data from the Graduate Destination Survey to investigate whether bachelor degree graduates from top-ranked Australian universities earn higher starting wages, "ceteris paribus," than graduates from other institutions. I do this using a two-step regression approach to control for the potential non-random selection of students into top-ranked universities.
Descriptors: Investigations, Graduate Surveys, Classification, Reputation, Salary Wage Differentials, Labor Market, Bachelors Degrees, Educational Indicators, Educational Benefits, Educational Quality, Cohort Analysis, Predictor Variables, College Outcomes Assessment, Foreign Countries
Australasian Association for Institutional Research. 546 Gallymont Road, Mandurama, NSW 2792, Australia. +61-2-6367-5347; e-mail: secretary@aair.org.au; Web site: http://www.aair.org.au
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Australia
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