The Armidale university has placed in the top five for high full-time salaries immediately after graduation, a Quality Indicators for Learning and Teaching survey reveals.

Careers advice, teaching quality, student population and course offerings all come into the mix deputy vice chancellor Todd Walker said.

“Most of our students are mature-aged, we know that they think very carefully about undertaking a course that is directly related to their chosen employment path,” he said.

More than 70 per cent of students at the university last year were 25 or older – with law, arts and business seeing the most enrolments.

Students at UNE could expect to earn in excess of $64,000 on average in 2018, $4000 more than the industry average.

And, almost 80 per cent of its students were working full time from 2016 to 2018, just behind the Central Queensland University.

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The university offers industry placements, which Mr Walker believes is key in the students’ employment outcomes.

“In addition to their UNE degree, students in the [mature] age group are likely to have more employment experience and greater life experience which is often attractive to employers,” he said.

”We believe the link between graduate salary and UNE is a reflection on the quality of our graduates.”

UNE belongs to the Regional University Network, between 2013 and 2016, 69 per cent of employed undergraduates from the RUN universities ended up working in regional areas.

In comparison, just 23 per cent of undergraduates from non-RUN universities worked in regional Australia, and students who leave regions to study in the city are unlikely to return.

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