There is no earnings advantage to attending a sandstone university compared with less prestigious institutions, a major economic study has found.
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The latest Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia survey found graduates from the elite Group of Eight universities earn no more on average than those who attended regional universities and less than those attending other universities. The controversial finding has been disputed by the Group of Eight universities, which tend to require higher entrance scores and perform better on international rankings.
The HILDA survey found that, when controlled for cognitive ability, there is a 10 per cent earnings premium for attending a technical university such as the University of Technology, Sydney or Melbourne's RMIT University compared with Group of Eight universities such as the University of Sydney or Melbourne.
There was an even bigger 15 per cent earnings premium for attending a university that is part of the group known as Innovative Research Universities, such as La Trobe University or Griffith University, compared with the Group of Eight, the survey found.
Overall, a bachelor's degree increases earnings by 41 per cent for men and 32 per cent for women compared to those who completed year 11 or below.
HILDA is a respected annual survey of more than 7000 households conducted by the Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research.
Group of Eight executive director Vicki Thomson said the group was "disappointed and perplexed" that the results had been accepted for publication.
"We absolutely question the veracity of the methodology adopted," Ms Thomson said.
Innovative Research Universities executive director Conor King said: "It is very interesting to see data suggesting results from universities across the board are fairly similar but that when you break it up by university those usually considered 'best' are not necessarily the strongest."
Australian Technology Network universities executive director Renee Hindmarsh said the findings backed the "practical education with strong industry links" offered by technical universities.
Grattan Institute higher education program director Andrew Norton said the findings were "not wrong but misleading".
"What you study matters much more than where you study," he said.
Mr Norton said the fact Group of Eight universities enrol more students in lower-paid disciplines such as arts and science would have skewed the results.
"All this said, past research that does control for discipline has consistently found that the financial advantage of attending a Go8 university is less than we might expect, given their relatively high prestige," Mr Norton said.
"It's fair to say the Go8 brand doesn't pay off in a big way, but to say it is a negative is misleading."
Research released by the Grattan Institute last year found a salary premium for the Group of Eight and Australian Technology Network universities of about 6 per cent compared with other universities when controlled for discipline and socio-economic background.
The HILDA report notes it is "perhaps surprising" that Group of Eight graduates did not have the highest earnings and had significantly lower earnings than some other graduates.
The findings may reflect differences in disciplines, including a greater focus on vocational fields at technical and innovative research universities.
The findings only relate to full-time employees, meaning high-earning self-employed graduates were not captured by the research.
