Record High Salary for EdUHK Education Graduates

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According to the latest Graduate Employment Survey (GES) released by The Education University of Hong Kong (EdUHK), 99% of the graduates from its Bachelor of Education programmes were employed or had chosen to further their studies within three months of graduation. Their average monthly salary registered a year-on-year increase of 7.1%, reaching a record high of HK$26,971.

Graduates of the Postgraduate Diploma of Education programme (PGDE) had a similarly high percentage. All 168 respondents were employed or had opted for further studies, and the average starting monthly salary reached HK$27,527.

The Student Affairs Office conducts the GES from October to December each year to assess the employment status of EdUHK’s full-time graduates. A total of 674 graduates, 506 from the full-time Bachelor of Education programmes and 168 from the PGDE programme, participated in the 2018 survey, representing a 94% response rate.

According to the GES’s findings over the past decade, EdUHK graduates have been highly competitive in the field of education, as shown by the consistently high percentage of graduates who are either employed or intend to continue their studies, coupled with the overall rising trend of their average starting salary levels.

Acting Director of Student Affairs Ms Angie Yeon Yuk-mei said, “EdUHK attaches great importance to the learning experience of students; they are encouraged to take part in different types of service learning, language immersion and overseas exchange programmes to broaden exposure. EdUHK graduates are well-sought after in the local education sector because of their professional knowledge in their specific fields of study, their whole-person development, and their classroom-management experience.

Ms Yeon added that the increased government expenditure in recent years on the enhancement of education has enabled schools to strengthen teaching support through, for instance, implementing an “all-graduate teaching force” and adding permanent teaching posts and supportive roles such as information technology assistants, executive assistants, social workers, educational psychologists and speech therapists. All these measures have helped front-line teachers stay focused on teaching and have attracted new blood to join the teaching force.

Starting in the next academic year, EdUHK will substantially increase the intake number for training kindergarten teachers and primary school teachers in mathematics to meet the manpower needs of the local education sector. The University will also significantly increase the number of undergraduate places for early childhood education from 18 to 49. This has been a popular choice for DSE graduates. The number of places in the primary mathematics programme will also rise from 15 to 70.

Apart from the professional knowledge and pedagogy in mathematics, the programme features strengthened training in STEM education. Students will be exposed to mathematics-based STEM content through their major studies, pedagogical and cross-disciplinary courses, and their final year project. This will allow them to apply STEM-related class design and study and to effectively promote STEM education in schools from various perspectives, in alignment with the government’s education policy and development direction.

Associate Vice President (Academic Affairs) cum Registrar Professor May Cheng May-hung said a new curriculum for the Bachelor of Education programmes will be implemented in the next academic year to better prepare EdUHK students to become professional teachers. A Field Experience Foundation Course will be launched with experienced teaching staff guiding students in discussions and studies on topics such as the teaching profession. Also, the practicum duration will be extended from 12 to 16 weeks for students to gain more school experience.

Professor Cheng added, “Students in the 21st century are required to integrate and create knowledge through a cross-disciplinary approach. Under the new curriculum, students will need to take an interdisciplinary course jointly offered by another faculty or department to develop a multi-perspective mindset.”

The GES 2018 also surveyed 267 graduates of EdUHK programmes complementary to education, including the Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Language Studies, the Bachelor of Social Sciences (Honours) in Global and Environmental Studies, the Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Creative Arts and Culture, the Bachelor of Social Sciences (Honours) in Psychology, and the Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Teaching Chinese as a Second Language. The survey found that 95.5% of the graduates who responded had successfully secured employment or decided to pursue further studies. The average starting salary was HK$14,406. The fields in which they were engaged included education, community and social services, creative art or design, business services, government and public organisations.

Appendix I: Findings of Graduate Employment Survey 2018 (Chinese only)
Appendix II: Bios of EdUHK graduates (Chinese only)