University releases graduates’ annual Illini Success report
Photo Courtesy of University of Illinois
Illinois graduates jump in the air on the Main Quad after a previous year’s commencement. The Illini Success team recently released a report detailing post-graduation pursuits of bachelor’s degree recipients who graduated during the 2019-2020 academic year.
March 18, 2021
The University has released a report detailing post-graduation pursuits of bachelor’s degree recipients who graduated during the 2019-2020 academic year.
The report, written by the Illini Success team, gives an annual review of first career destinations of recent graduates, as well as other statistics like average salary rate by college and major.
The report has identified post-graduate outcomes of 57% of graduates, as compared to 75% from last year’s report.
“While the survey response rate by graduates was a bit lower than our experience in typical years, the report reflects the outcomes of more than half of all graduates for that time period,” Chancellor Robert Jones wrote in a Massmail.
The knowledge rate also differs significantly between colleges, with the response rate 44% for the College of Fine + Applied Arts but 85% for the Gies College of Business.
The known secured first destination rate of graduates is 91%, compared to 93% from last year.
The first destination rate accounts for graduates who are employed, continuing education or engaged in volunteer or service work.
According to the report, the average salary of the 2019-2020 full-time employed graduates is $65,178. The average jumps to $86,149 for Grainger graduates.
Overall, the full-time employed annual salary has seen a small increase in recent years, as it was $60,885 for the 2017-2018 graduating class and $63,515 for the 2018-2019 graduating class, according to an Illini Success report which analyzes three-year trends.
“In this year when so many lives and jobs have been disrupted by the pandemic, it is gratifying to see that an Illinois degree provided so many of our recent graduates with a solid foundation for these critical first steps in their careers,” Jones wrote in the Massmail.
The Illini Success initiative began gathering data about post-graduate pursuits in August 2014. According to the report, “The project tells the Illinois story of graduate successes, demonstrating a wide variety of paths and destinations, with high quality information, updated annually.”
