BETHLEHEM, Pa. -- A majority of college graduates are seeing their starting salaries rise, according to the Winter 2005 survey by the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE).

The study found that 85 percent of disciplines are showing increases to their average starting salaries. Graduates with engineering or computer degrees are seeing the biggest gains.

"Although, in general, salary increases were modest, 85 percent of disciplines that reported a percentage change in average starting salary posted an increase," said NACE Executive Director Marilyn Mackes. "That’s positive movement over last year at this time, when a little more than two-thirds of the disciplines that we track saw their salaries rise."

Civil engineering graduates posted a 5.1 percent increase in their average starting salary, bringing it to $43,159. Computer science grads posted a 4.9 percent salary increase for an average of $51,042.

Elsewhere, graduates with marketing degrees posted a healthy 4 percent increase to an average of $37,519.

Also coming in with a moderate gain, business administration graduates posted a 2.6 percent increase in their average starting salary this year, bringing it to $38,357.

Accounting graduates reported a 2.4 percent increase in starting salaries, to an average of $43.050.

Salary increases were very modest for economics-finance graduates. They reported a 0.3 percent increase with an average pay of $40,719.

NACE said there was little salary data available on liberal arts disciplines, but said, as a group, their starting salaries fell 3.6 percent to $29,060.