USYD, UNSW, UTS: What Sydney Graduates Actually Earn by Degree (2024 Salary Benchmarks)

USYD, UNSW, UTS: What Sydney Graduates Actually Earn by Degree (2024 Salary Benchmarks)

Graduate salary benchmarks for Sydney’s three largest universities—USYD, UNSW, and UTS—offer a data-driven view of return on education for international students targeting Australia’s largest job market. According to the 2023 Quality Indicators for Learning and Teaching (QILT) Graduate Outcomes Survey, the median starting salary for a postgraduate coursework business degree from the University of Sydney is AUD 68,500, while engineering bachelor’s graduates from UNSW report an average first-year salary of AUD 73,400. These figures sit at the intersection of discipline choice, visa pathways, and Sydney’s cost of living.

Data Sources and Methodology

The salary figures presented here are drawn from public datasets with a Sydney-specific lens: the QILT Graduate Outcomes Survey (2023, published 2024), university-submitted employment data, and surveys by Study NSW and the NSW Department of Education. The QILT survey is administered by the Australian Government Department of Education and collects responses from graduates approximately four to six months after course completion. University-specific reports—such as the UNSW Graduate Employment Report, USYD Graduate Destination Survey, and UTS Careers Survey—supplement these national figures with institutional granularity. The Department of Home Affairs provides context on international graduate visa outcomes, including Temporary Graduate visa (subclass 485) holders. All amounts are in Australian dollars and represent full-time equivalent annual salaries before tax.

Salary Benchmarks by Discipline

Business and Commerce

USYD’s Master of Commerce (coursework) posts a median starting salary of AUD 68,500, with a 25th percentile of AUD 60,000 and a 75th percentile of AUD 80,000. UNSW’s equivalent degree reports a median of AUD 70,200, while UTS’s MBA—often attracting candidates with prior work experience—records a median of AUD 82,000. At the bachelor level, USYD Bachelor of Commerce graduates earn a median AUD 62,000; UNSW Bachelor of Commerce median reaches AUD 64,500; and UTS Bachelor of Business median sits at AUD 60,800. Macquarie University’s Bachelor of Commerce graduates report a median of AUD 61,200, and Western Sydney University’s (WSU) equivalent median is AUD 58,400, mirroring Sydney’s west-east salary gradient. The NSW Department of Education’s 2023 post-school destination data confirms that business graduates working in Sydney’s CBD financial services cluster earn a 12% premium over those employed in suburban or regional offices.

Engineering

UNSW Bachelor of Engineering (Honours) graduates achieve an average starting salary of AUD 73,400, based on the university’s 2023 Graduate Employment Report. The all-Sydney median for engineering bachelor’s graduates, as captured by QILT, is AUD 72,000. USYD engineering bachelor graduates report a median of AUD 71,500, and UTS engineering bachelor graduates a median of AUD 70,800. The interquartile range for early-career engineering salaries across Sydney is relatively tight: the 25th percentile sits at AUD 67,000, the 75th percentile at AUD 80,000. Discipline splits are meaningful: civil engineering graduates entering Sydney’s transport infrastructure projects often start above AUD 75,000, whereas mechanical and biomedical engineering roles average AUD 69,000–71,000. Postgraduate coursework engineering degrees push medians higher; UNSW Master of Professional Engineering reports AUD 78,000 and USYD’s equivalent AUD 76,500.

Information Technology

Information technology graduate salaries show a pronounced dispersion—the widest among Sydney’s large disciplines. The QILT-derived median for a Bachelor of Information Technology in Sydney is AUD 70,000, but the range separating the 25th and 75th percentiles exceeds AUD 25,000. UTS, the city’s largest IT graduate provider, records a median bachelor starting salary of AUD 72,000, with the top quartile touching AUD 88,000 and the bottom quartile AUD 58,000. USYD’s Bachelor of Advanced Computing median is AUD 71,500, and UNSW’s Computer Science median is AUD 73,000. The skew is driven by employer type: graduates entering fintech, cybersecurity, or DevOps roles within Sydney’s Tech Central precinct frequently start in the AUD 80,000–90,000 band; those in generalist helpdesk or smaller digital agencies anchor the lower quartile. A Study NSW employment outcomes dashboard notes that IT graduates with an Australian internship on their CV close 70% of the initial local-versus-international salary gap within two years.

Nursing and Allied Health

Nursing graduates operate within Sydney’s public health award framework, producing a compressed salary distribution. The median starting salary for a Bachelor of Nursing graduate across Sydney universities is AUD 69,200. The 25th percentile sits at AUD 65,000 and the 75th percentile at AUD 75,000, a band only one-third the width of IT’s. University-specific medians are tightly clustered: USYD nursing at AUD 70,000