Research consistently shows that higher-education participation has positive impacts on individual outcomes. However, few studies explicitly consider differences in these impacts by socio-economic background (SEB), and those which do fail to examine graduate trajectories over the long run, non-labor outcomes and relative returns. We address these knowledge gaps by investigating the short- and long-term socio-economic trajectories of Australian university graduates from advantaged and disadvantaged backgrounds across multiple domains. We use high-quality longitudinal data from two sources: the Australian Longitudinal Census Dataset and the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia Survey. Low-SEB graduates experienced short-term post-graduation disadvantage in employment and occupational status, but not wages. They also experienced lower job and financial security up to 5 years post-graduation. Despite this, low-SEB graduates benefited more from higher education in relative terms—that is, university education improves the situation of low-SEB individuals to a greater extent than it does for high-SEB individuals.

研究一致表明，高等教育参与对个人成果有积极影响。但是，很少有研究明确考虑社会经济背景（SEB）对这些影响的差异，而那些研究确实无法检验长期的毕业生轨迹，非劳动成果和相对回报。我们通过调查来自多个领域的优缺点背景的澳大利亚大学毕业生的短期和长期社会经济轨迹，来解决这些知识差距。我们使用来自以下两个来源的高质量纵向数据：澳大利亚纵向人口普查数据集和澳大利亚家庭，收入和劳动力动态调查。低SEB毕业生在就业和职业地位方面短期毕业后处于不利地位，但工资方面则没有。他们在毕业后的5年内还经历了较低的工作和财务保障。尽管如此，相对而言，低SEB毕业生从高等教育中受益更多-也就是说，大学教育比高SEB个体在很大程度上改善了低SEB个体的处境。