Graduate Employability: Policy and Performance in Higher Education in the UK

Abstract

The UK government is introducing new sets of indicators designed to measure the performance of universities. A ®rst wave of indicators was published in December 1999. A performance indicator based on graduate employment outcomes will follow. This paper proposes a method for developing employment-related performance indicators based on the analysis of data on the ®rst destinations of a full cohort of leavers from pre-1992 universities in the United Kingdom. We analyse the determinants of graduate ®rst destinations and suggest a method for the construction of university performance indicators. We also discuss limitations of league tables based on university performance indicators.

University Choice, Research Quality and Graduates' Employability: Evidence from Italian National Survey Data

“…[8] Although there is substantial agreement that the probability of finding employment after graduation is strongly determined by the type of secondary schooling and university discipline chosen by the student, and by his or her socio-economic background (combined with other individual characteristics, such as gender, marital status and presence of children), there is less consensus on the effect of university performance and prestige. All in all, both the lack of data and the difficulties in measuring university quality (Smith et al, 1999;Bratti et al, 2004;Black & Smith, 2006) have prevented a comprehensive investigation of the link between academic institutions and their impact on the labour market.…”

A Study of the Impacts of Variable Factors on Built Environment Graduates’ Prospects

“…Degree subject is a well-identified factor which influences graduate employment (Ballarino, 2009;Lim, 2010;Smith et al, 2000). Lim (2010) studied the employment pattern of graduates of undergraduate degree programmes in the University of Utara Malaysia.…”

“…undergraduate or postgraduate, had an impact on graduate employability as they mainly focused on one type of degree. For example, Lim (2010), Smith et al (2000) focused on studying undergraduate courses while Devaney and Roberts (2012) and Urwin and Di Pietro (2005) focused on investigating employability for graduates for postgraduate courses only.…”

“…There is only one study Smith et al (2000) which investigated whether attendance type, which is full-time or part-time study, had an impact on graduate employment. Their conclusion was that it did not.…”

“…Other similar studies conducted in the UK, such as Smith et al (2000) and Devaney and Roberts (2012), also used the government statistics on graduate destination. Smith et al (2000) (2000) has only used one year (1983) data.…”