Equity in higher education and graduate labour market outcomes in Australia

Figures & data

Table 1. Descriptive statistics.

Variable	Mean	Std. dev.
Demographics
Female	0.616
Age, expressed in years	23.155	3.375
Born in Australia	0.795
Equity group
Low SES (SEIFA)	0.266
Regional or remote area of origin	0.142
NESB	0.020
Indigenous	0.003
Disability	0.016
Females in STEM	0.090
Academic characteristics
University 1	0.428
University 2	0.155
University 3	0.141
University 4	0.276
University course weighted average mark	69.517	7.348
STEM field of study	0.229
Further study after graduation	0.280
Worked in final year of study	0.846
Employment characteristics
Employed full-time	0.450
Employed part-time	0.377
Employed in the public sector	0.250
Professional or semi-professional occupation	0.516
Quality job	0.350
Job match	0.510
Permanent job (>1 year)	0.414
Large firm (>99 employees)	0.543
Medium firm (20–99 employees)	0.167
Small firm (<20 employees)	0.232
Likely to have changed employers since graduation	0.297
Annual salary, in Australian dollars	39,231	32,606
Observations	10,718

Standard deviations are presented for continuous variables.

SES: Socio-economic status; SEIFA: Socio-Economic Indexes for Areas; STEM: science, technology, engineering and mathematics; NESB: non-English-speaking background.

Table 2. Results from the probit models of employment outcomes.

	Employment		Job match		Job quality
Variables	Coefficient	Average marginal effect	Coefficient	Average marginal effect	Coefficient	Average marginal effect
Female	0.071*	0.015*	0.053	0.020	0.046	0.017
(Male = 0)	(0.040)	(0.008)	(0.034)	(0.013)	(0.035)	(0.013)
STEM field of study	−0.142***	−0.030***	0.186***	0.069***	0.217***	0.080***
(Non-STEM = 0)	(0.051)	(0.011)	(0.048)	(0.018)	(0.048)	(0.018)
Weighted average mark	0.004*	0.001*	0.020***	0.008***	0.021***	0.008***
	(0.002)	(0.000)	(0.002)	(0.001)	(0.002)	(0.001)
Work in last year of degree	1.308***	0.274***	−0.362***	−0.133***	−0.316***	−0.117***
(No work = 0)	(0.037)	(0.007)	(0.051)	(0.019)	(0.050)	(0.018)
Born in Australia	0.100**	0.021**	−0.062*	−0.023*	−0.033	−0.012
(Not Australia = 0)	(0.040)	(0.008)	(0.037)	(0.014)	(0.037)	(0.014)
Further study	−0.560***	−0.117***	−0.775***	−0.286***	−0.699***	−0.258***
(No further study = 0)	(0.034)	(0.007)	(0.033)	(0.011)	(0.035)	(0.012)
Lowest quartile of SES	0.052	0.011	0.026	0.010	−0.025	−0.009
(Not lowest SES = 0)	(0.039)	(0.008)	(0.034)	(0.012)	(0.034)	(0.013)
Regional or remote area	−0.063	−0.013	0.150***	0.055***	0.136***	0.050***
(Not in regional or remote = 0)	(0.048)	(0.010)	(0.043)	(0.016)	(0.044)	(0.016)
NESB	−0.096	−0.020	−0.027	−0.010	−0.192*	−0.071*
(English-speaking background = 0)	(0.105)	(0.022)	(0.111)	(0.041)	(0.115)	(0.042)
Female × STEM field of study	−0.118	−0.025	−0.518***	−0.191***	−0.541***	−0.200***
(Male = 0, non-STEM = 0)	(0.074)	(0.015)	(0.072)	(0.026)	(0.073)	(0.027)
Constant	−0.236		−0.867***		−1.209***
	(0.157)		(0.147)		(0.149)
Observations	10,422		8678		8678
Log likelihood	−3949		−5589		−5453
Pseudo R-squared	0.175		0.070		0.060

Standard errors in parentheses. ***, ** and * denote significance at1, 5 and 10 per cent levels, respectively.

SES: Socio-economic status; STEM: science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

Table 3. Results from the OLS model of earnings, graduate sample and by gender.

Variables	Full sample	Males	Females
Female	−0.070***
(Male = 0)	(0.022)
STEM field of study	0.086***	0.072**	−0.072*
(Non-STEM = 0)	(0.031)	(0.032)	(0.041)
Weighted average mark	−0.002*	−0.004***	−0.001
	(0.001)	(0.002)	(0.002)
Work in last year of degree	0.058	0.056	0.062
(No work = 0)	(0.037)	(0.052)	(0.052)
Born in Australia	0.040	0.001	0.060*
(Not Australia = 0)	(0.026)	(0.034)	(0.036)
Further study	−0.259***	−0.327***	−0.220***
(No further study = 0)	(0.027)	(0.039)	(0.035)
Full-time employment	0.781***	0.790***	0.775***
(Part-time = 0)	(0.027)	(0.042)	(0.035)
Employed in public sector	−0.015	−0.059	0.007
(Private sector = 0)	(0.024)	(0.040)	(0.031)
Professional or semi-professional occupation	0.187***	0.229***	0.159***
(Not professional or semi-professional = 0)	(0.023)	(0.037)	(0.029)
Medium employer	0.108***	0.103**	0.109***
(Small employer = 0)	(0.030)	(0.050)	(0.037)
Large employer	0.184***	0.164***	0.196***
(Small employer = 0)	(0.023)	(0.034)	(0.030)
Permanent contract	0.448***	0.429***	0.455***
(Casual or short-term contract = 0)	(0.029)	(0.045)	(0.038)
Fixed-term contract	0.417***	0.348***	0.450***
(Casual or short-term contract = 0)	(0.035)	(0.055)	(0.045)
Lowest quartile of SES	0.002	−0.001	0.005
(Not lowest SES = 0)	(0.022)	(0.033)	(0.029)
Regional or remote area	0.059**	0.082*	0.049
(Not in regional or remote = 0)	(0.030)	(0.044)	(0.039)
NESB	−0.262***	−0.297*	−0.235*
(English-speaking background = 0)	(0.099)	(0.172)	(0.121)
Female × STEM field of study	−0.156***
(Male = 0 or non-STEM = 0)	(0.051)
Constant	9.447***	9.679***	9.202***
	(0.103)	(0.130)	(0.157)
Observations	7829	2951	4878
Adjusted R-squared	0.411	0.446	0.385

Standard errors in parentheses. ***, ** and * denote significance at 1, 5 and 10 per cent levels, respectively.

SES: Socio-economic status; STEM: science, technology, engineering and mathematics; NESB: non-English-speaking background.

Table 4. Estimates from the Blinder–Oaxaca decomposition.

Item	NESB (i)	Gender (ii)	Female*STEM (iii)	Female in STEM (iv)
Predicted earnings for privileged group	10.227***	10.330***	10.252***	10.198***
	(0.012)	(0.019)	(0.012)	(0.016)
Predicted earnings for unprivileged group	9.801***	10.153***	9.865***	9.865***
	(0.128)	(0.015)	(0.048)	(0.048)
Raw wage gap	0.426***	0.176***	0.387***	0.333***
	(0.128)	(0.024)	(0.050)	(0.051)
● Due to endowments	0.258**	0.047***	0.282***	0.253***
	(0.102)	(0.018)	(0.038)	(0.065)
● Due to coefficients	0.251**	0.080***	0.211***	0.065
	(0.106)	(0.020)	(0.046)	(0.041)
● Due to interaction	−0.083	0.049***	−0.106***	0.016
	(0.072)	(0.013)	(0.033)	(0.026
Unexplained gap	0.249	0.110	0.202	0.067
Explained gap	0.176	0.066	0.185	0.266
Percentage of unexplained	59	63	52	20
Percentage of explained	41	37	48	80
Observations	7829	7829	7829	4878

Standard errors in parentheses. ***, ** and * denote significance at 1, 5 and 10 per cent levels, respectively. Privileged (unprivileged) groups are (i) ESB (NESB), (ii) males (females), (iii) males or non-STEM major (females in STEM major) and (iv) females in non-STEM major (females in STEM major).