We estimate the effect of university characteristics on the return to higher education in Tunisia. We use a variety of administrative data from the Ministry of Higher Education and Research, the Ministry of Vocational Training and Employment and the National Social Security Fund. We consider econometric approaches based on multilevel modelling, which distinguishes more precisely between the effects of individual factors and institutional factors on earnings. Our findings confirm the relationship between the income and some university characteristics such as the number of professors, the higher admission requirements, the academic speciality and the unemployment rates of the previous generations.