Graduates of overseas universities fair better than local grads in salary scale
What do you think of this topic, based on my experience yes its true that overseas grads get better pay but only for those with outstanding achievement only, and the different is not that big, just RM200- 300.
A study that we conducted recently revealed that of the 100,000-plus JobStreet.com members in Malaysia who hold a Bachelor degree and are currently working in the country, graduates from overseas universities on average earn about 12 percent more than local graduates.
The salary gap is most apparent among those with up to five years of work experience where overseas graduates are earning a significant 20 percent more than their local counterparts. Even after 10 years or more of work experience, the gap is still more than 10 percent.
In terms of job specialization, the biggest salary gap between overseas and local graduates is in business-related fields such as management, economics, finance and marketing where overseas graduates earn about 15 percent more than local graduates.
In the engineering and IT/Computer fields, salaries are about 11 percent higher for overseas graduates.
We also did a similar study among 20,000 JobStreet.com members in Singapore and we observed that there is no significant difference between the salaries of graduates from local Singaporean universities and overseas universities even after five or 10 years of work experience.
In conclusion, a Malaysian who graduates from a local Malaysian university earns on average a lower salary than those who graduate from an overseas university. There were no significant difference in salaries that exists among graduates in Singapore.
Note: For this research, the term “overseas” refers to the top three most popular overseas destinations for tertiary studies - Australia, Great Britain and United States - and includes twinning programmes.
Popularity: 92% [?]




May 20th, 2008 at 11:05 am
That’s Malaysian way, previously when my brother went to interview, the boss asked whether my brother studies oversea or local representative campus, then only hire him… Strange… No one support Malaysia education?
May 21st, 2008 at 7:46 pm
[…] and the different is not that big, just RM200- 300. A study that we conducted recently revealedhttp://www.graduan2u.com/2008/05/19/graduates-of-overseas-universities-fair-better-than-local-grads-…THREE NEW BOARD MEMBERS FOR BECTA AND REAPPOINTMENT OF ONE EXISTING MEMBER DFESDfES News Centre : […]
May 26th, 2008 at 9:53 pm
in general, overseas grad look better in term of their skills in communication, cofidence level etc
June 19th, 2008 at 12:40 am
So, does this means that everybody should study in oversea universities? How about those who are studying in local universities because they are incapable of financing themselves to study oversea and also unable to apply for a scholarship to support them oversea? Myself is a local university graduate. Does this means that it’s rather difficult for me to look for job? Or is it actually depends on the way I perform in the interview?
June 22nd, 2008 at 6:53 pm
it actually depend on the individual…i have seen many local grads at the top of the organisation,
August 13th, 2008 at 12:03 am
I found your site on technorati and read a few of your other posts. Keep up the good work. I just added your RSS feed to my Google News Reader. Looking forward to reading more from you down the road!