Graduate Outcomes at The Chinese University of Hong Kong

Module: 02 Admissions · Sub-file: Graduate Outcomes & Starting Salaries Last Updated: 2026-07-01 This article collates data on the employment, starting salaries, destinations, and employer reputation of graduates from CUHK (Sha Tin main campus — does not include CUHK Shenzhen). Principal sources: ① UGC statistics on first-degree graduates from all eight UGC-funded institutions in Hong Kong; ② the CUHK Office of Student Affairs' Graduate Employment Survey (GES); ③ employer-reputation and graduate-employment indicators within global rankings such as QS and THE; ④ employer surveys by recruitment platforms (e.g. CTgoodjobs); ⑤ annual summaries of these datasets by major Hong Kong news outlets.

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# I. Timeliness and Statistical Definitions (please read first)

The "graduate salary" figures published by the GES and the UGC are among the most widely cited — and most frequently misinterpreted — datasets released in Hong Kong each year. The table below nails down the definitions; all subsequent figures in this article adhere to this framework.

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# II. Average Starting Salaries (First Degree / Bachelor's)

# 2.1 Comparison Among the Eight UGC-Funded Institutions (2023/24 Academic Year, UGC Statistics)

According to a compilation by HK01 of UGC data on the employment status of 2023/24 bachelor's graduates^※ and a Dot Dot News report^※:

Key takeaways:

• The mean annual salary of CUHK bachelor's graduates stood at HK$381,000^※ (~HK$31,750 monthly), ranking second in Hong Kong, behind only HKU (HK$401,000, which surpassed the HK$400,000 threshold for the first time). It is notably higher than the average for all eight UGC-funded institutions (HK$329,000).
• The overall average across all eight institutions rose by 4.8% year-on-year in 2023/24, reaching a record high. However, CUHK's year-on-year increase was only +1.3%, markedly lagging behind the overall trend — indicating that the salary gap between CUHK and HKU widened slightly that year.

# 2.2 Prior-Year Scale and Structure (2022/23 Academic Year, GES Framework)

According to HK01's compilation of 2022/23 data^※, the structural details from that year's GES/UGC survey were:

Comparing the two academic years: CUHK graduates' "second in Hong Kong" position remains stable, but salary growth has consistently lagged behind that of HKU and the all-institution average — a consistent signal in CUHK employment data in recent years.

# 2.3 Starting Salary Disparities by Discipline: Medicine Leads the Pack

According to another summary report^※, the 2023/24 data for all eight institutions reveals significant disparities in starting salaries by discipline:

• Medicine, Dentistry, and Nursing represent the highest-earning subject categories, with a mean annual salary reaching HK$540,000. This is far higher than the overall eight-institution average (HK$329,000) — roughly 1.6 times the mean.
• This disciplinary premium is not unique to CUHK; it is a characteristic shared by healthcare-related disciplines across all eight UGC-funded institutions, reflecting a structural, long-term undersupply of healthcare professionals in the Hong Kong market.

CUHK itself has a Faculty of Medicine (CU Medicine) and a School of Nursing, so this "medicine premium" effect likely accounts for a substantial weighting within CUHK's overall mean annual salary (HK$381,000). However, because the authorities do not publicly disclose starting salary data broken down by faculty, this article refrains from unsupported, faculty-level extrapolation and merely notes, as a fact, the leading position of healthcare disciplines at the territory-wide level.

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# III. Destination Profile: Employment, Further Studies, and Sectoral Flow

• Employment rate: According to a press release from CUHK Communications and Public Relations Office on the QS 2026 rankings^※, CUHK graduates are "highly sought-after by local and multinational employers". Nearly 90% (almost 90%) of surveyed graduates had secured employment within one year of graduating.
• Further studies: In the 2022/23 territory-wide data for all eight institutions, about 16.5% of graduates proceeded to further studies (per HK01, citing the UGC). The further-study rate for CUHK graduates from foundational disciplines like Arts, Science, and Social Science is generally higher than for those from professional disciplines.
• Sectoral flow (qualitative): CUHK medical graduates mainly enter the Hospital Authority's public hospital system. Business and Quantitative Finance graduates flow into investment banking, accounting firms, and consulting. Engineering and Computer Science graduates head towards tech and fintech. Education and Social Work graduates enter the public and NGO sectors. Because detailed, faculty-specific starting salaries have not been fully and publicly released, this article refrains from listing precise figures to avoid presenting a partial picture as the whole.

CUHK Shenzhen publishes its own separate "Graduate Employment Quality Report" (with salaries in RMB and a very high further-study rate). This is entirely independent of the Hong Kong main campus; readers should take care not to conflate the two sets of figures. For CUHK Shenzhen's specific further-study rate and employment quality data, see Section 8 of 09-international/cuhk-shenzhen.md.

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# IV. Employer Preference: The "CUHK Phenomenon" in Recruitment Platform Surveys

In addition to the UGC's objective salary statistics, another frequently cited — but different — class of data arises from subjective employer surveys conducted by recruitment platforms: i.e., "Which institutions do employers most want to recruit from?"

Per a compilation by LXbird of 2024 graduate salary and employment data for Hong Kong institutions^※, the "Graduate Salary and Employment Survey Report 2024" was published by the well-known Hong Kong recruitment platform CTgoodjobs, drawing on a sample of employers from 23 industries and graduates from 12 local universities and tertiary institutions:

Key takeaways:

• This is the first time CUHK has overtaken HKU to top this particular "most preferred" employer survey. It is worth noting that this is not contradictory to the objective salary data in Section II (where CUHK's average salary was second overall, behind only HKU): "employer preference" reflects a subjective ranking of employers' perceptions of graduate quality / capability, rather than the actual salary levels they pay. These two metrics measure entirely different dimensions.
• In the previous iteration of this survey (i.e., the year before the one referenced), the top spot was held by PolyU (41.7%), which fell to fourth place in the current year. This illustrates the considerable year-on-year volatility inherent in such annual employer surveys. One should not over-interpret a single year's ranking shift as a fundamental leap or decline in any given institution's "quality".
• The same report indicates that 82.4% of surveyed graduates opted for full-time employment, a 10.5 percentage-point increase from the previous year, while the proportion choosing part-time work fell by 13.3 percentage points. This suggests a recovery, that year, in the graduate job market's capacity to absorb fresh graduates into full-time roles.

Interpretive caution: The sample size, industry coverage, and questionnaire design of recruitment platform "most preferred" employer surveys vary from one organisation to another, and year-on-year comparability is limited. Such surveys should be treated as a reference indicator of "subjective employer impressions" and should not be conflated with the UGC's objective salary statistics (Section II) or the international graduate employability ranking indicators discussed below (Section V).

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# V. Employability Metrics in International Rankings

# 5.1 QS World University Rankings: Employer Reputation & Employment Outcomes

According to the CUHK Communications and Public Relations Office press release^※, CUHK was ranked 32nd globally in the QS World University Rankings 2026, its best performance ever. Two of QS's nine indicators — "Employer Reputation" and "Employment Outcomes" — relate directly to graduate destinations. The press release states that CUHK recorded significant improvement in "Academic Reputation", "Employer Reputation", and "Faculty Student Ratio".

# 5.2 THE Global University Employability Ranking: Third in Hong Kong

According to a related report summarising the 2024–25 Times Higher Education Global University Employability Ranking^※, this ranking, published by Times Higher Education in partnership with the French HR consultancy Emerging, measures the employability performance of university graduates through dimensions including "Employer Reputation", "Alumni Outcomes", "Employer Partnerships", and "Employer Presence on Campus". Four Hong Kong universities made the list:

Key takeaway: CUHK ranks third in Hong Kong in this international, dedicated employability ranking, trailing HKUST and HKU. This forms an interesting counterpoint to the local recruitment platform survey results in Section IV (where employers placed CUHK first in "most preferred"), highlighting that "local employer hiring intentions" and "composite employability metrics assessed by international organisations" are not the same thing. These two sets of rankings have different emphases and cannot be simplistically equated or substituted for one another.

For a summary of CUHK's rankings performance across various charts over the years, see the CUHK official Rankings page^※. For year-by-year positions in dedicated QS / THE employability rankings, see Module 03: ../03-rankings/README.md. This article focuses solely on the Employer Reputation / Employment Outcomes dimensions most directly relevant to graduate destinations.

The "Employer Reputation" metric produced by ranking organisations is based on global employer surveys and forms a separate, independent set of data from the UGC's measured salaries described above. The former reflects "employers' overall impression of an institution", while the latter reflects "the actual money graduates receive". The two are not interchangeable.

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# Data Reliability and Known Gaps

• Verifiable hard data: The following are all supported by official sources or reputable media: UGC 2023/24 all-institution mean annual salaries (HKU 401,000 / CUHK 381,000 / 8-institution average 329,000, +4.8%); 2022/23 GES structural data (85.5% response rate, 71.7% full-time employment, 16.5% further studies, 1.5% unemployment); mean annual salary for Medicine, Dentistry, Nursing at HK$540,000; QS 2026 ranking of 32nd and the "nearly 90% employed within one year" figure; CTgoodjobs 2024 employer survey (CUHK top at 57.1%); THE 2024–25 Employability Ranking (CUHK 90th globally, third in HK).
• Media-compiled definitions: The institution-by-institution salary figures for all eight universities are sourced from media compilations of UGC data. Accuracy is contingent upon the UGC's original tables. This article only lists verifiable figures for leading institutions and the overall average, refraining from reproducing the entire set to avoid transcription errors. The same caveat applies to the recruitment platform survey; refer to the originating body's original report for precise sample details and methodology.
• Instances where verification was impossible are noted: CUHK faculty- and discipline-specific starting salaries are not comprehensively published online. This article describes these only qualitatively, without listing concrete figures. CUHK Shenzhen data has been explicitly excluded.

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