Graduates from Sydney's major universities are earning up to 10 per cent more than their Melbourne counterparts just a few years after finishing their degrees.

And while nine in 10 graduates are in full-time work a few years out of university, the short and medium-term employment prospects of university leavers are struggling to return to their pre-global financial crisis levels.

The figures are contained in a new report which for the first time reveals university-by-university data on graduates' earnings in their first years in the workforce.

Nine in 10 university graduates were in full-time work four years after finishing their studies. Credit:Joe Armao

Tracking the class of 2014, the survey found that by 2018, graduates of the six largest universities in NSW earned a median salary of at least $70,000 - except for Western Sydney University, where the median was $67,000.