Which NZ university has the best employment rates?

Students at Lincoln University are ready to hit the ground running when they graduate and are having no problem finding jobs.

As we get older what we talk about with friends changes. This is because of the challenges faced and experiences shared. So when Megan Hands’ friends from her hometown started talking about the choices they had to make when they finished studying, she found she couldn’t join in.

After finishing school, Hands left home in the Manawatu and moved south because she wanted to study both environmental management and agriculture, and Lincoln University offered exactly what she was looking for. Fast forward to graduation and she found some of her contemporaries were having conversations completely outside what she had experienced.

“Students from other universities were saying they weren’t sure what they were going to do next, and they didn’t know if there were any jobs out there. Those conversations weren’t really happening at Lincoln. I had an internship before I even finished my degree, and that developed into a full-time job with that company,” she says.

Hands is now running her own farming sustainability company as an environmental consultant.

The experience of Hands and others in her year group are typical for Lincoln University graduates. In Ministry of Education statistics released recently, Lincoln University Bachelor’s Degree graduate employment rates are consistently the highest among New Zealand universities. A survey of graduates from the Lincoln class of 2016 found that 93 percent of those employed were in career-related positions.

Chief Academic Officer and Professor of Agronomy Bruce McKenzie, says the university is very proud of these results and believes both the content and structure of its courses are behind the success. Alongside academic studies, there is a strong emphasis on practical experience and spending time in the industry.

“The courses and programmes that we run at Lincoln University are of an applied nature,” says McKenzie. “Generally, the work we do is around solving problems in our land-based industries – in the broadest possible context. Whether it’s agriculture or tourism, we teach programmes that are applied to the problems of the industry and to ensuring our graduates are employment ready.”

Using the Bachelor of Agricultural Science degree as an example, McKenzie says students visit and work on a wide range of farming enterprises in both halves of the country during their study.

“When they leave Lincoln they know exactly what they are doing and they hit the ground running,” he says.

With so many courses on offer, there is a wide variety of people to meet. This makes for a rewarding and valued education, enriched by employment opportunities at its conclusion.

Find out more about the University that leads the world in specialist, land-based education and research – Lincoln University. Visit or call