It was no easy feat for the class of 2023, completing their degrees in the midst of a global pandemic.

This no doubt inspired the many UOW graduates who are looking to make their mark in health, even across multiple faculties.

More than 2000 students will graduate at the UOW autumn ceremonies, which started on Tuesday, April 11, and will continue till Thursday across all four faculties.

A group of four graduates said their friendship had helped get them through their bachelor of public health degrees.

Emma Lavilles, Amy Gibbons, Emma Symons and Isabella Razmovski all met in the first week studying during the COVID-19 pandemic.

But it wasn't face to face, rather through a Zoom meeting.

"We just saw each other's Zoom names, we didn't actually know what [each other] looked like," Amy said.

The four graduates spent two of the three years of their degree learning online.

"We found each other's sort of contacts, and made a group chat," Emma Symons said.

"Then we got separated when we went online and just kept in touch over the group chat asking how everyone was going with assessments and finally met up at the start of last year."

Emma Symons wants to work in a health promotion unit at NSW Health focusing on chronic diseases.

She hopes to bring her own personal experience as someone with Type 1 diabetes when communicating with patients.

While she said her chronic condition didn't majorly impact her study she credits her friends for their support.

"I think it was good to have the girls because once we were on campus they were really good, and they helped me out during classes and Amy even started carrying a fruit box in her bag for me," she said.

Ellie Wright-Pedersen is hoping to use her mix of social science knowledge and graphic design skills to continue working in health marketing.

The UOW graduate completed a bachelor of social science, Dean's Scholar with distinction and does contract work for the Illawarra Shoalhaven NSW Health district as a graphic designer.

"Public health marketing is such a huge thing, and that's kind of why you do public health is to market to the people so that they understand what's happening around them and so that everyone stays safe and healthy," Ellie said.

While she uses graphic design, fellow graduate Thomas Pollak hopes to use data entry.

"We're in an information age, so information is quite crucial to fixing all of our problems really," he said.

"[For example] increasing efficiency in health care services, improving how Medicare or Centrelink might function as well and being able to increase or incentivise that even more."

The UOW graduates are entering the workforce with good news, the university has been ranked fifth nationally and second in NSW for employer satisfaction in a recent survey.

The annual Australian Government's Quality Indicators for Learning and Teaching (QILT) Employer Satisfaction Survey measures employer views of the attributes of recent graduates from Australian higher education institutions.

The employers had an overall satisfaction level of 87.3 per cent with UOW graduates.

While UOW graduates have taken a step down from first place in the survey in 2022 they are still above the national average, which is 84.8 per cent, for employer satisfaction aggregated over the past three years.

"We pride ourselves producing graduates who are workplace ready and life ready," deputy vice-chancellor Professor Theo Farrell said.

"The fact that our students have featured near the top of the Employer Satisfaction Survey table every year shows that they leave UOW with the toolkit of knowledge and skills needed to succeed in their careers."

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