Graduate Employment Outcomes for International Students
Description and objectives of the research
This research project will investigate the actual and potential contribution that international students (can) make to Australia's labour market, specifically in skilled occupations. This may be on a temporary or permanent basis (the latter if the students seek permanent residency through independent or sponored skilled migration pathways after graduation).
- What are the employment outcomes of international students entering the Australian labour market under the sponsored or independent skilled migration program?
- How well do their qualifications (by field of study and level of attainment) align with their current occupations?
- Is there any evidence that outcomes and opportunities for Australian students are any different from those of international students after graduation?
- Is the Australian labour market making optimal use of the pool of skilled migrant workforce to alleviate skill shortages?
- What are the key impediments to successful labour market outcomes of international students?
These questions have, to some considerable extent, been addressed previously especially once the third cohort of the Longitudinal Survey of Immigrants in Australia (LSIA 3) became available that tracked onshore applicants (i.e. mostly former overseas students). The contribution of the proposed research would be to examine relatively under-explored data collected by Graduate Careers Australia, the 2011 ABS Census (to be released in 2012) and the ABS Characteristics of Recent Migrants Survey 2010 that was released in June 2011.
Given that the situation for international students has changed so quickly and dramatically as a result of a variety of factors all happening at more or less the same time (e.g. the GFC, the rising dollar, legislative changes to the occupations in demand list, etc.), it is prudent to revisit some of the analysis with data that reflect the current situation.
Contact: the Melbourne Institute contact for this project is Dr Hielke Buddelmeyer.
Progress
This project commenced in April 2012 with a final report to be submitted to the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations in January 2013..