Postsecondary students in Canada 10 years after graduation

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Release date: January 19, 2023
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Infographic: Postsecondary students in Canada 10 years after graduation
Description: Postsecondary students in Canada 10 years after graduation

Graduates with an undergraduate degree or higher had higher growth in median employment earnings between 2 and 10Note 1 years after graduation than college certificate and diploma holders.

Table 1
Table summary
This table displays the results of Table 1. The information is grouped by Educational qualification (appearing as row headers), Median earnings after 2 years, Median earnings after 10 years and Relative growth (appearing as column headers).
Educational qualification Median earnings after 2 years Median earnings after 10 years Relative growth
College certificate $38,800 $43,900 13.1%
College diploma $43,100 $52,900 22.7%
Undergraduate degree $49,900 $71,800 43.9%
Professional degreeNote 2 $85,200 $111,800 31.2%
Master’s degree $70,600 $89,700 27.1%
Doctoral degree $67,400 $101,600 50.7%

Graduates of master’s and doctoral BHASE programs had higher median employment earnings than their counterparts from STEM programs 2 years after graduation. Ten years after graduation, the earnings gap had closed.

Start of text box

STEM:

  • Science
  • Technology
  • Engineering
  • Mathematics and computer sciences

BHASE:

  • Business
  • Health
  • Arts and humanities
  • Social science
  • Education; legal studies; trades, services, natural resources and conservation
End of text box



Table 2
Table summary
This table displays the results of Table 2. The information is grouped by Educational qualification (appearing as row headers), Field of study , Median earnings after 2 years and Median earnings after 10 years (appearing as column headers).
Educational qualification Field of study Median earnings after 2 years Median earnings after 10 years
Master’s degree STEM $67,100 $91,100
Master’s degree BHASE $71,600 $89,300
Doctoral degree STEM $60,300 $101,600
Doctoral degree BHASE $73,800 $101,800

Nearly half (45.5%) of undergraduate degree holders returned to school full-time within 10 years of graduation, the large majority of whom (90.4%) returned within 5 years.

  • 54.5% did not return to school full-time within 10 years of graduation.
  • 41.1% returned to school full-time within 5 years of graduation.
  • 4.4% returned to school full-time between 6 and 10 years after graduation.

Source: Statistics Canada, table 37-10-0218-01 - Characteristics and median employment income of longitudinal cohorts of postsecondary graduates two, five and ten years after graduation, by educational qualification and field of study (STEM and BHASE (non-STEM) groupings).

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Published by authority of the Minister responsible for Statistics Canada.

© His Majesty the King in Right of Canada, as represented by the Minister of Industry, 2023

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Catalogue no. 11-627-M

Frequency: Occasional

Ottawa

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