Most employers are satisfied with the performance of local university and sub-degree graduates, an opinion survey commissioned by the Education & Manpower Bureau has found.

It covered 1,600 local first-degree students and more than 600 sub-degree students who graduated in 2003.

About 96% of the employers surveyed found the performance of first-degree graduates average or above, including 18% who said they were very satisfied.

The overall work performance score of the first degree graduates of the University Grants Committee-funded institutions is 3.58 on a five-point scale, higher than the score of 3.51 of the previous survey on students graduating in 2000.

For sub-degree graduates, the overall work performance score is 3.44, which is also better than that of the last survey in which they scored 3.36.

About 93% of the surveyed employers considered the work performance of the sub-degree graduates as average or above, including 11% who were very satisfied with their performance.

Graduates performed best in information technology literacy and perform well in the areas of English language proficiency, Chinese language proficiency, and work attitude. Similar to the results of the previous survey, employers see room for improvement in the graduates' management skills.

The survey also found that about 60% of the respondents said institutions should enhance the relevance and quality of the undergraduate and sub-degree programmes by involving employers in curriculum development and arranging internship.