The degrees which will get you the highest starting salary in South Africa
MyBroadband’s recent qualifications and salary survey reveals that Engineering graduates enjoy the highest starting salaries, followed by BEd and BSc graduates.
The survey was completed 4,638 South Africans, of which 1,787 did a degree at a traditional South African university.
To rank the starting salaries of graduates, we only considered people who started working from 2013 onward.
The different degrees were then grouped together – like BA, BSc, or Engineering – and the average starting salary for each group was calculated.
No distinction was made between the degree levels – standard degrees, Honours, Master’s, and Doctorate qualifications were grouped together.
Highest starting salaries
Engineering graduates had the highest average starting salary, R19,069 per month, followed by BEd graduates at R15,825, and general BSc graduates at R14,541.
The infographic below provides a quick overview of the average salary per qualification.
A comprehensive look at the results
To get a more detailed picture of the survey results, an engineer who is well versed in statistics assisted with some calculations.
The table below shows the average salary, median salary, and the 25th and 75th percentiles of starting salaries for recent graduates.
| Starting salaries per qualification | ||||
| Qualification | Average starting salary | Median starting salary* | 25% quantile** | 75% quantile*** |
| BSc Engineering or BEng Degrees | R19,069 | R20,000 | R15,000 | R24,000 |
| BEd Degrees | R15,825 | R16,000 | R14,850 | R16,787 |
| General BSc Degrees | R14,541 | R12,000 | R8,000 | R20,250 |
| BSc Computer Science or IT Degrees | R14,452 | R15,000 | R8,000 | R19,000 |
| BTech Degrees | R13,008 | R11,500 | R7,875 | R14,500 |
| BCom Degrees | R11,070 | R10,000 | R8,000 | R13,000 |
| BA Degrees | R9,534 | R8,000 | R6,875 | R12,750 |
| Diploma | R6,814 | R6,000 | R4,000 | R8,750 |
| Matric | R5,830 | R4,975 | R3,000 | R6,500 |
| Certification | R5,777 | R5,500 | R3,000 | R7,000 |
*Median – the salary which is in the middle of the set of starting salaries.
**25% quantile – the lowest starting salary that is greater than 25% of the salaries.
***75% quantile – the lowest starting salary that is greater than 75% of the salaries.
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