The Good Universities Guide 2018 has found that 83.9 per cent of CSU graduates find full-time employment within four months of leaving university.

This compares with the national average rate of full-time employment of 69.5 per cent.

CSU graduates also enjoy some of the highest wages in their first year out of uni, averaging around $60,000.

“The fact that almost 84 per cent of Charles Sturt University graduates find employment within four months of graduation is a testament to the quality and strength of our teaching and learning including our practical, hands-on approach through workplace learning both in Australia and overseas,” acting vice-chancellor Professor Toni Downes said.

“Our professionally focused studies produce students who are getting good jobs in regional areas and I think that accounts for their high starting salaries.”

Professor Downes said CSU had the highest proportion of successful jobseekers in the fields of communications, computing and information systems, agriculture and environmental studies, and psychology.

The Good Universities Guide also found that 22 per cent of domestic students who started studying at CSU came from a low socio-economic background – the highest rate of all Australian universities.

“This is important for Charles Sturt University because as well as priding ourselves on the employability of our graduates, we are inclusive and strive to make higher education readily accessible to all members of our communities,” Professor Downes said.

The graduate figures are in stark contrast to a report earlier this year that showed CSU was also at the top of the list for first-year university dropouts.

But Professor Downes said that data could be explained by CSU’s large online student body of around 22,000 enrolments.

“The kids that come on-campus do very well and we have very low dropout rates,” she said.

“Where we have the higher dropout figures, though, is among the online students who are often older adults who are studying part-time while holding down a job and raising a family.

“They are the students who can find it very difficult at first.”