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SCMP Reporter

The average monthly income of new Lingnan University graduates reached a 10-year high of HK$11,408 last year,  up nearly 7 per cent from a year earlier. A record 99.7 per cent were in work.
The highest earner was a social sciences graduate bringing in HK$27,000 per month as a financial consultant.
Director of student services Veronica Tam Sin-ping  said the buoyant economy and the liberal-arts university's increasing emphasis on all-round education were factors.
Lingnan's student services centre surveyed 755 graduates in the last quarter of last year. It found 51.2 per cent  worked in areas outside their area of studies, a rise  of 7 percentage points from a year earlier.
'This shows that employers tend to consider students' overall attributes, and not just their grades, during recruitment,' Dr Tam said.
'Their biggest concern is not the graduate's degree, but how interested in the field they are, the internships they have completed, what they've done to upgrade themselves and their language skills.'
The study found that cultural studies graduates earned the most - HK$13,696 per month on average - followed by social sciences graduates on HK$13,415. Those with degrees in contemporary English studies came third  at  HK$12,252.
More than three-quarters of graduates were working in commerce and industry, one in six in education and just 3 per cent for the civil service or in community or social work.
'It is difficult to compare us to other universities because we do not offer professional degrees such as medicine, law and engineering. But we are quite pleased,' Dr Tam said.



Rise in salaries for Lingnan graduates