The University of Hong Kong

Careers Education and Placement Centre

Where did the 1996 Comparative Literature graduates go?

I.Introduction

The information contained in this paper is extracted from the Graduate Employment Survey of 1996 to answer the following questions about Comparative Literature majors : -

• How were they employed six months after graduation ?
• Of those who pursued further studies, what programmes did they follow ?
• Of those who were employed full-time, how long did it take them to secure their first job offer ?
• In which sectors were they employed ?
• How much did they receive in salary ?
• How many job offers did they receive ?
• Who were their employers and what were their job titles ?

II. Employment Situation in 1996

Of the 44 respondents who reported to major in Comparative Literature, 36 graduates (82%) were in full-time employment within six months of graduation. 9.1% (or 4 graduates) were still looking for full-time employment at the time of the survey in December 1996. Another 9.1% (or 4 graduates) went on for further studies. (Table 1)

* HKU overall refers to the figure for the total HKU population and includes M.B.,B.S. and B.D.S. graduates.

III. Further Studies

The percentage of Comparative Literature graduates who pursued further studies decreased to 9.1% from 17% last year. All of them pursued their studies in local tertiary institutions. Table 2 shows the academic programmes Comparative Literature graduates were engaged in and Table 3 shows the source of finance.

Source of Finance	No. of Graduates
Own Fund	2
Teaching Assistantship/Studentship	2

Table 3. Source of finance for further studies

IV. Time Taken to Secure Employment

Among those graduates who were in full time employment, 97% (or 30 graduates) secured their first job offers before the end of September. By the end of October, the percentage increased to 100%. On average, 1996 Comparative Literature graduates took shorter time to secure employment than their predecessors in 1995. (Figure 1)

No Response = 5

Figure 1. Time taken to secure employment

V. Employment Sectors

Of those in full-time employment, 71% (or 25 graduates) were employed in commerce and industry, followed by 20% (or 7 graduates) in education, 5.7% (or 2 graduates) in community, social & personal services and 2.9% (or 1 graduate) in the civil service (Figure 2). Figure 3 shows the employment sectors by sex.

No Response = 1

Figure 2. Employment sectors

No Response = 1

Figure 3. Employment sectors by sex

VI. Basic Salary and Gross Income

Table 4 shows the basic salary and gross income received by the 1996 Comparative Literature graduates.

* HKU average refers to the figure for the total HKU population and includes M.B.,B.S. and B.D.S. graudates.

VII.Number of Full-Time Job Offers

Of the 36 graduates in full time employment, 22 (61%) received two or more job offers. (Figure 4).

Figure 4. No. of full-time job offers

VIII. Names of employers and Job titles

The job titles of the 36 Comparative Literature graduates in full time employment and the names of their employers are listed below. (Table 5)

No Response = 5

Table 5. List of employers and job titles

Note :Some alumni have indicated willingness to talk to individual students about their work. Their contact telephone number can be obtained from counsellors at CEPC.

IX.