Compare Study Options

About the Compare Study Options tool

• If you get a search result saying “No data available”, there may still be people studying at that study field and study level. This is because small samples aren’t shown, to avoid the risk of individuals’ data being identified.
• Earnings are median salaries. This is the halfway point in the ranking of earnings – so not everyone has earned this amount. Half of graduates have earned more than this amount and half have earned less.
• Earnings are actual annual (gross) earnings, and do not take account of hours of work. This means earnings will be understated for any qualification/field of study where there are significant numbers of young graduates in part-time work.
• Earnings have been converted to 2011 dollars to adjust for inflation.
• All results are for young, domestic graduates. Young graduates range from 21 years or under for certificate-level qualifications, to 29 years or under for Doctorates. Graduates are only included in the results in those years where they spent at least three months in New Zealand.
• Earnings data only reflects graduates that have work as their main activity, with graduates in further training and on benefits excluded.
• The results show what graduates earned and did between 1 April 2008 and 31 March 2010 (the 2009 and 2010 tax years).
• The percentage of graduates in each destination may not add up to 100%. In accordance with Statistics New Zealand’s data confidentiality requirements, the underlying values are randomly rounded to +/-2 of their actual value.
• If you would like to read an in-depth report using this data, see the Ministry of Education report: ‘Moving on up – what young people earn and what they do after education’
  
  
• Find out more about the data used in this tool