According to current CIBC World Marketplaces research, “completing post-secondary education is still the greatest road to a well-paying, quality employment in Canada.”
They go on to suggest, however, that the quality of education is slipping marginally. Too few students are graduating from degrees that are highly valued by businesses. What is the misalignment between what students are learning and what corporations are prepared to pay extra for?
This is not a new occurrence. Many students prefer to follow their passions and learn about what interests them. Learning for learning has undeniable significance.
However, if you are looking for the best financial return on your university degree, a few stand out above the rest.
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Overall, a university education still results in higher pay than a senior high school diploma or a university diploma alone. For example, a Bachelor’s degree entitles you to more than a 30% increase in “earnings high quality” over senior high school graduates. Add a Master’s or Ph.D., and you’ll get another 15% off.
Despite this, today’s unemployment rate among college or university graduates is only 1.7 percentage points lower than that of senior high school graduates. This disparity was substantially more expansive in the 1990s.
The advantage of a university diploma over a high school diploma has also shrunk. It has now shrunk to a mere 0.7 percentage point. It is worth noting that many Canadian institutions began awarding concurrent school degrees more than ten years ago.
Graduate Degrees That Pay Higher Salary
Graduate Degree | Earnings Premium |
---|---|
Medicine/Physician | 184% |
Dentistry | 157% |
Accounting | 141% |
Law | 123% |
MBA | 102% |
Public Administration | 87% |
Education | 86% |
Specialized Undergraduate Programs
Professional Undergraduate Degree | Earnings Premium |
---|---|
Engineering | 117% |
Computer Sciences | 86% |
Commerce | 74% |
Nursing | 71% |
Architecture | 65% |
Occupational or Physical Therapist | 60% |
Pharmacist | 58% |
Education/Teacher | 53% |
Standard Undergraduate Degrees
Professional Undergraduate Degree | Earnings Premium |
---|---|
Social sciences | 38% |
Life sciences | 37% |
Humanities | 23% |
Fine & Applied Arts | -12% |