Where did the 2000 Biology graduates go ?
	Careers Education and Placement Centre

I. Introduction

The information in this paper is extracted from the Graduate Employment Survey of 2000 to answer the following questions about Bachelor of Science in Biology graduates : -

How many were employed within six months after graduation ?

For those who pursued further studies, what programmes were they enrolled in ?

For those who were employed full-time, how long did it take them to get their first job offer ?

In which sectors were they employed ?

How much salary did they receive ?

How many job offers did they receive ?

Who were their employers ?

What were their job titles ?

II. Employment Situations in 2000

Of the 38 graduates from this programme, 32 responded to the survey. Their employment situations are listed below.

	*BSC(BIOL)*				HKU Overall*
	*2000*		*1999*		*2000*		*1999*
	No.	%	No.	%	No.	%	No.	%
No. of respondents	32	100	48	100	2575	100	2475	100
Employed	17	53	33	69	2030	79	1928	78
Unemployed seeking F/T job	2	6.3	3	6.3	59	2.3	79	3.2
Further Studies	13	41	12	25	461	18	455	18
Emigrated/Returned to home country	0	0	0	0	2	0.1	4	0.2
Not seeking F/T job	0	0	0	0	23	0.9	9	0.4

? 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

Thirteen graduates proceeded to further studies. The tables below show the academic programmes that they pursued and their source of funding.

*Field of Study*	Academic Programme
*Field of Study*	M.Phil.	Master (Coursework)	Postgraduate Certificate	*Adv.Diploma/* Diploma
Accounting	-	1	-	-
Computer Science	-	-	-	2
Education	-	-	4	-
Science	5	-	-	-

No Response = 1

Source of Funding

No. of Graduates

Teaching Assistantship/Studentship

4

Own Funds

4

Government Grant & Loan

3

Full Scholarship

2

IV. Time Taken to Secure Employment

The time taken for graduates to secure employment is shown below.

	% of new graduates who have secured employment
By the end of	2000	1999
May or before	6.3%	6.7%
June	25%	27%
July	44%	47%
August	63%	73%
September	81%	90%
October	88%	100%
November	100%	100%

V. Employment Sectors

The majority of graduates in Biology were employed in commerce & industry, while others were employed in educational institutions and community, social & personal services.

	% of graduates
Sector	2000	1999
Commerce & Industry	69%	53%
Educational Institutions	25%	25%
Community, Social & Personal Services	6.3%	16%
Civil Service	-	6%

VI. Basic Salary and Gross Income

The remuneration received by graduates in Biology is shown below.

	Basic Salary				Gross Income
	BSC(BIOL)		HKU Average*		BSC(BIOL)		HKU Average*
	2000	1999	2000	1999	2000	1999	2000	1999
Mean	$11,280	$10,480	$14,125	$14,480	$13,229	$11,026	$15,448	$15,716
Median	$10,000	$9,600	$12,000	$10,870	$12,533	$10,000	$13,000	$11,917
Minimum	$8,000	$8,000	$1,300	$1,000	$8,000	$8,000	$3,000	$3,000
Maximum	$17,100	$22,000	$58,000	$58,000	$22,200	$22,000	$74,967	$60,000

? HKU Average refers to the figure for the total HKU population and includes M.B.B.S. and B.D.S. graduates.

VII. Number of Full-Time Job Offers

The number of job offers received by graduates in Biology is shown in the following table.

*No. of job offers received*	No. of graduates (% of graduates)
One	9 (64%)
Two	2 (14%)
Three	2 (14%)
Eight or more	1 (7.1%)

No Response = 2

VIII. Names of Employers and Job Titles

The job titles of graduates in Biology in full-time employment and the names of their employers are listed below.

Employers	Job Titles
EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS -
HK Institute of Education	Research Assistant
Hong Kong Baptist University	Research Assistant
True Light Girls College	Teacher
Tsung Tsin Middle School	Job title not reported

COMMUNITY, SOCIAL AND PERSONAL SERVICE -
Hong Kong New Generation Cultural Association	Programmer Officer

COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY -
Asahi YNH Co Ltd	Executive Secretary
Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd	Flight Attendant
Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd	Cabin Crew
China Connection Investment Planning Co Ltd	Executive Assistant
Hong Kong Dragon Airlines Ltd	Flight Attendant
Hong Kong Affairs Publishing Holdings Ltd	Editor
McDonald's Restaurant (HK) Ltd	Manager Trainee
Nitto Denko (HK) Co Ltd	Sales Representative
Ogilvy & Mather Advertising	Account Executive
Picktips HK Limited	Programmer

No Response = 1

Note: Some of the 2000 graduates indicated willingness to talk to individual students about their work. Contact numbers can be obtained from counsellors at the CePc.

Further Information

Similar information on graduates from other disciplines is available for reference in the Careers Library. Please contact the CePc for further details.

Careers Education and Placement Centre

3/F Wong Chuang Lai Wah Building

Meng Wah Complex

The University of Hong Kong

Pokfulam Road

Hong Kong

Telephone : 2859 2314

Fax : 2559 5238

E-Mail : CEPC@HKUCC.HKU.HK

Homepage : http://www.hku.hk/cepc

Opening Hours : Monday - Friday (9:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.)

Saturday (9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.)

Cindy Chan

August, 2001

The analysis is based on information provided by the respondents, and the Careers Education & Placement Centre should not be held responsible for any errors arising therefrom.

No part of this report may be reproduced in any form or by whatever means,

unless with written permission from the Director of the Careers Education and Placement Centre,