The annual average salary of undergraduates graduating from the Chinese University of Hong Kong-Shenzhen (CUHK-SZ) in 2018 reached 137,500 yuan (US$20,371). The employment rate of these bachelor’s degree holders stood at 98.51 percent, according to an employment quality report published by the university on Friday, the Shenzhen Economic Daily reported.

The 268 students, 101 males and 167 females, were the first batch of undergraduates enrolled by the university in 2014. All of them studied at the School of Management and Economics and majored in global business, economics and marketing.

Among the 268 undergraduates, 70 came from Guangdong Province, accounting for 26.12 percent of the total.

According to CUHK-SZ, 32.46 percent of the undergraduates joined the workforce as of the end of 2018. Most of the students work at large multinational enterprises and unicorn companies, with an average annual salary of 137,500 yuan.

Meanwhile, most students engage in the fields of consultation and professional services and finance after graduation, and nearly 90 percent choose to work in first-tiered cities such as Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Shanghai, Beijing and Hong Kong.

The number of graduates who stay in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area is 62, accounting for 71.26 percent of the students who are employed.

In view of graduates’ performance in the workplace, CUHK-SZ also conducted a questionnaire for employers. The results showed that overall satisfaction of employers with the graduates is high, especially regarding the students’ excellent foreign language proficiency, learning capability, interpersonal communication ability, initiative and trustworthiness.

Among those who wanted to further their studies, 176 chose to go abroad to pursue a master’s degree, accounting for 65.67 percent. Six graduates directly applied for doctoral programs. On average, graduates who chose to study abroad received three admission letters from world-renowned universities.

According to CUHK-SZ, the grades of the students enrolled in 2018 have achieved a record high. The admission scores for science students and humanities students at the university were 133 points and 82 points higher respectively than at China’s top-tier universities.

The students’ average English grade on gaokao, the National College Entrance Exam, was as high as 138 out of 150.   (Zhang Yu)