2024 Graduate Employment and Salary Data for Hong Kong’s Eight UGC-funded Universities: A Systematic Examination of the Median Monthly Salary Gap among HKU, CUHK and HKUST
The employment competitiveness and salary outcomes of Hong Kong’s higher education graduates serve as a key indicator of the return on human capital investment. According to graduate salary statistics by level of study and institution released by the University Grants Committee (UGC), the overall employment rate (including full‑time employment and self‑employment) for full‑time bachelor’s degree graduates of the eight UGC‑funded institutions in the 2022/23 academic year rebounded to approximately 92.5%, a significant recovery from the pandemic trough and close to levels last seen in 2018/19. Yet beneath this generally positive trend, the divergence in median monthly salaries across institutions has continued to widen. Drawing on publicly available data from the UGC, graduate employment surveys conducted by the participating universities, the Immigration Department (ImmD) and the Hong Kong Examinations and Assessment Authority (HKEAA), this article provides a layered analysis of the 2024 employment and salary figures for the major institutions, focusing on the structural mechanisms that explain the median salary differentials among The University of Hong Kong (HKU), The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) and The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST).
Overall Employment Rates and Salary Stratification
UGC statistics show that among full‑time bachelor’s degree graduates of the eight institutions in the 2022/23 academic year, the full‑time employment rate stood at about 86.3%, the proportion pursuing further studies was around 17.2%, and the unemployment rate narrowed to 2.1%. The overall combined employment and further‑study rate exceeded 93% at HKU, CUHK and HKUST, with HKU taking the top spot at nearly 96.1%. On the salary front, the overall median monthly salary for bachelor’s graduates across all eight institutions fell in the range of HK$20,500 to HK$21,800, whereas the median figures for HKU, CUHK and HKUST came in clearly above this band, at approximately HK$25,000, HK$23,000 and HK$22,500 respectively. It is worth noting that graduates of certain applied disciplines at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) and City University of Hong Kong (CityU) recorded starting salaries that approached, and in some cases locally exceeded, those of HKUST, illustrating the strong influence of subject mix on an institution’s overall salary level.
Quantitative Differences in Median Salaries among the Three Universities
Drawing on HKU’s 2023 Graduate Employment Survey (released in mid‑2024), CUHK’s 2023 Graduate Employment Statistics and HKUST’s Career Center 2023 Report, the stepped differences in median salaries are clear. The median monthly salary for HKU bachelor’s graduates was about HK$25,300, up roughly 6.3% from HK$23,800 in 2021/22. In the same survey year, CUHK recorded a median of approximately HK$22,900 and HKUST approximately HK$22,400. Comparing only the overall medians, HKU exceeded CUHK by around 10.4% and HKUST by around 12.9%. HKU’s average was pulled upward markedly by several high‑paying disciplines: its 90th‑percentile monthly salary topped HK$40,000, while the corresponding figures for CUHK and HKUST were around HK$36,000 and HK$35,000 respectively.
Preliminary 2024 survey data indicate that the projected median released by HKU’s Centre of Development and Resources for Students (CEDARS) remains in the HK$24,800–HK$25,500 range, while the projections for CUHK and HKUST stand at HK$22,500–HK$23,200 and HK$21,500–HK$22,400 respectively. The gap has not narrowed significantly, suggesting that the drivers of the divergence are cumulative structural factors rather than short‑term labour‑market fluctuations.
Weighted Differences by Discipline Mix
The inter‑institutional gap in median monthly salaries stems primarily from fundamentally different discipline structures. At HKU, graduates from three high‑earning fields—medicine, dentistry and law—accounted for about 27.8% of all bachelor’s degree graduates. Medical graduates recognised by the Medical Council of Hong Kong who join the Hospital Authority start at pay points equivalent to MPS 32–34, with a monthly salary including allowances of between HK$68,000 and HK$74,000. Bachelor of Laws graduates entering international law firms as trainees commonly earn HK$35,000–55,000 per month in their first year. These high‑earning streams significantly lift HKU’s overall median.
In contrast, CUHK’s medical graduates (MBChB) enjoy an entry salary that matches that of their HKU counterparts, but they account for only about 16.5% of CUHK’s total bachelor’s cohort, below the roughly 21% combined share of medicine and dentistry at HKU. The bulk of CUHK graduates are concentrated in business administration, social science and arts disciplines. Fresh social science graduates entering NGOs or the media sector typically start at a median of only HK$17,000–19,000, and arts graduates receive market‑range salaries of HK$16,000–20,000, substantially offsetting the high‑salary effect of the medical cohort.
HKUST’s discipline mix is centred on engineering and science; graduates from the Schools of Engineering and Science together account for more than 55% of all bachelor’s graduates. According to the HKUST Career Center 2023 Report, the median monthly salary for engineering bachelor’s graduates was about HK$20,500–21,800, and that for computer science and IT‑related graduates was about HK$22,000–24,000. HKUST has neither a medical school nor a law school, so it lacks the systemic support of ultra‑high starting salaries. Consequently, while its overall median is competitive within the science and engineering sector, a gap relative to the weighted results of HKU and CUHK is clearly observable.
Impact of Industry Flows on Salary Distributions
Data from the Immigration Department’s “Immigration Arrangements for Non‑local Graduates” (IANG) show that in 2023 approximately 31.2% of approved non‑local graduates staying in Hong Kong entered the finance and insurance sector, a far higher proportion than any other industry. Finance offers a significant starting‑salary premium: fresh graduates joining investment banks or asset management firms in front‑office roles typically start at HK$35,000–60,000 per month, while middle‑ and back‑office positions draw around HK$28,000–40,000. Talent intake for this sector largely comes from business, finance, economics and quantitative disciplines, and both HKU and CUHK have business schools with large undergraduate intakes.
About 40% of employed BBA graduates from the HKU Business School entered multinational banks or consultancies, and the school’s overall median monthly salary reached HK$27,000–30,000. Similarly, around 38% of CUHK Business School’s full‑time bachelor’s graduates went into finance, with a median starting salary of about HK$25,000. HKUST’s Business School also sent about 34% of its graduates into the finance sector, with a median starting salary also around HK$25,000, according to the university’s employment report. However, the absolute number of business graduates at HKU and CUHK is larger than at HKUST, and when combined with other high‑paying fields such as law and medicine, this creates a gradient in the total volume of graduates entering high‑salary industries.
In engineering, the median starting salary for those entering the construction and engineering consultancy sector typically ranges from HK$19,000 to HK$23,000, representing a gap of 1.5 to 2 times compared with finance. Even within technology‑oriented industries, the median monthly salary for entry‑level software engineers in Hong Kong is about HK$22,000–28,000—higher than the average starting salary for engineers but still below front‑office finance roles. Although HKUST graduates enjoy an advantage in the IT industry, IT’s ability to lift the median is not yet on a par with professional services such as medicine and law. Immigration Department data on employment visas support this assessment: among overseas professionals approved under the General Employment Policy, the financial services and professional services sectors jointly accounted for about 43% of approvals, while engineering and technology accounted for approximately 17%.
Structural Differences by Employer Type and Recruitment Preferences
The persistent difference in salary benchmarks between the public and private sectors continues to influence the median figures of each institution. Under the civil service pay scale, the starting salaries for degree‑stream posts in 2024 (including Administrative Officers and Executive Officers II) all exceed HK$35,000 (with Administrative Officers starting at around HK$60,000), attracting large numbers of graduates from HKU and CUHK. At HKU, the proportion of law, social science and arts graduates entering the government and public sector is relatively high, at about 22% of employed graduates. Entry into the public sector raises the salary floor for these disciplines and makes a notable contribution to median stability. At HKUST, the proportion entering the public sector is about 15%; its graduates tend to prefer multinational technology firms, start‑ups or engineering‑related private entities, where salary dispersion is greater and some start‑ups even pay below the market average.
Moreover, medical graduates entering the Hospital Authority enjoy job stability and extremely high starting salaries. Data from the Medical Council of Hong Kong indicate that the city’s two medical schools produce a combined total of about 470 MBBS graduates each year, the overwhelming majority of whom enter the public healthcare system. These graduates’ monthly pay is significantly above that of other disciplines from the very start, exerting a strong upward pull on the institutional median—a structural dividend that HKUST does not benefit from, given the absence of a medical school.
Intergenerational Effects of Admission Quality
Historical data from the HKEAA and the Joint University Programmes Admissions System (JUPAS) show that HKU has maintained higher admission thresholds across several high‑score disciplines. Based on the median JUPAS admission scores for the 2023/24 academic year, the MBBS and BDS programmes at HKU almost completely covered the cohort achieving a best‑six HKDSE score of 35 or above (out of a maximum of 42). CUHK’s corresponding medical programmes also have extremely high admission scores, but its business and other programmes exhibit a wider score distribution than HKU’s. At HKUST, the median admission scores for its strengths—engineering and science—are high, yet the overall score band tends to be slightly below that of medicine and law programmes. Groups with higher admission scores continue to display stronger competitiveness in the labour market four years later, and this intergenerational transmission effect is further cemented through alumni networks and employer preferences for particular institutions.
Public data indicate that among board members of companies listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, HKU alumni account for about 22%, CUHK alumni for about 16%, and HKUST alumni for about 9%. The density of alumni in senior positions within financial institutions and large corporations indirectly influences the employment opportunities and starting‑salary negotiation space of fresh graduates, creating a self‑reinforcing cycle of institutional salary differentials over the long term.
Graduate Geographic Mobility and Its Relationship with Salary
Immigration Department IANG visa statistics show that the number of non‑local graduates who stayed to work in Hong Kong rebounded to about 10,000 in 2023, with the main source regions being mainland China, India, Malaysia and parts of Europe. Non‑local graduates tend to cluster in finance, technology and academic research institutions, and their starting salaries are generally equal to or slightly higher than those of local graduates. In the 2023/24 academic year, the proportion of non‑local students reached 24% at HKU, 20% at CUHK and 29% at HKUST. A relatively high proportion of non‑local graduates from HKUST choose to pursue opportunities outside Hong Kong after graduation, with some moving to the Guangdong‑Hong Kong‑Macao Greater Bay Area or other Asia‑Pacific regions; their overseas employment earnings are not captured in the above‑mentioned medians. This may result in a slight underestimation of the actual average salary for all HKUST leavers. However, because the UGC reporting framework focuses mainly on those working locally, this deviation cannot currently be fully corrected.
The Manpower Projection Report published by the Education Commission and the Education Bureau (EDB) indicates that Hong Kong’s high‑salary growth sectors in the medium term will remain concentrated in healthcare, fintech, data science and professional services. The future direction of institutional salary gaps will depend on how quickly each university can adjust its programme mix to align with industry demand, rather than on a narrow pursuit of short‑term rankings based on a single average salary metric.
FAQ
Q: Does the “median monthly salary” in the UGC graduate employment statistics include the earnings of graduates working outside Hong Kong?
A: The current UGC graduate employment survey primarily covers graduates employed locally in Hong Kong and does not include the salary data of those hired elsewhere. Individual universities’ own employment surveys may use different tracking methods, and some capture salary reports from the mainland and overseas, but the statistical coverage is not fully uniform.
Q: Why do medical and dental graduates have such a pronounced pulling effect on an institution’s overall median salary?
A: Medical graduates who join the Hospital Authority start at pay points set according to the civil service pay scale, far above the market‑based starting salaries of other disciplines. A single medical graduate’s salary is often more than three times that of an arts or social science graduate. Even though medical graduates account for a relatively small share of the total cohort, their very high salaries lift the statistical median noticeably.
Q: If medical and law graduates are excluded, is the median salary at HKU and CUHK still higher than at HKUST?
A: When medicine, dentistry and law graduates are removed and only business, science, engineering, social science and comparable disciplines are compared, HKU and CUHK do not exhibit a significant advantage over HKUST. In some years, the median salary of HKUST’s computer science and engineering graduates has actually exceeded that of similar disciplines at HKU and CUHK.
Q: Who publishes the data in graduate employment survey reports, and is there scope for institutions to present an overly favourable picture?
A: Each university’s graduate employment survey is coordinated by its own career centre or office of student affairs, which collects questionnaire responses from graduates. Response rates vary by institution, mostly between 65% and 85%. The UGC maintains a separate set of statistics using a standardised methodology covering all UGC‑funded programme graduates; it carries a higher degree of authority. When using both sources, differences in statistical coverage should be noted.
Q: Do differences in median salary mean that the return on a degree from certain institutions is relatively low?
A: The median monthly salary reflects only the salary distribution in the early years after graduation. It does not account for career progression, long‑term income growth, or non‑salary benefits offered by different industries. Engineering and technology fields may have lower starting salaries, but the magnitude of pay increments upon mid‑career promotion can be substantial. Assessing the return on a degree requires factoring in industry life cycles, employment stability and individual career trajectories; a narrow comparison based on starting salary alone has its limitations.
Q: Do policy or immigration factors affect the salary gap between institutions?
A: The Top Talent Pass Scheme and the relaxation of IANG visa policies have both increased the supply of non‑local talent. In certain professional fields, such as finance and technology, an expanding talent pool may moderate the growth of starting salaries. The varying rates at which different institutions’ graduates are absorbed by different industries will indirectly influence year‑on‑year fluctuations in median salaries and the associated inter‑institutional differences.