International experience,universities support and graduate employability – perceptions of Chinese international students studying in UK universities

Recent policy developments in English Higher Education have resulted in employability placed in the spotlight, whereby the success of universities will be measured based on graduate employment. This represents the latest focus placed on employability in the sector, as universities are increasingly expected to provide employment-ready graduates to meet the demands of a global economy. In response universities have invested considerable energy into initiatives and services to enhance the employability outcomes of graduates. However, institutions have largely been UK-centric on their focus, with limited attention paid to the employability needs of international students. In this paper, we report the outcomes of a study centred on the largest group of non-EU domiciled international students in the UK, those from Mainland China. Drawing on survey data we examine Mainland Chinese students’ attitudes to their employability and the support they engage with through their UK University. We pay specific attention to the opportunities presented through the ‘international’ nature of the HE experience, and consider how these are utilised by both the students, and their institutions, to develop their future employability. We conclude by proposing recommendations for universities and institutions to enhance the support offered to this often overlooked, but significant group of students.     

Employing discourse: universities and graduate ‘employability’

What constitutes graduate employability is discursively framed. In this paper we argue that whilst universities in the UK have long had an involvement in producing useful and productive citizens, the ongoing neoliberalisation of higher education has engendered a discursive shift in definitions of employability. Traditionally, universities regarded graduate employment as an aspect of institutions’ relationship with the labour market, and one where they enjoyed a significant degree of discretion. Now, employability is a performative function of universities, shaped and directed by the state, which is seeking to supplant labour markets. We argue that this has three profound implications. First, state intervention in labour markets adjusts power balances in favour of employers. Second, contrary to the legitimising rationale of enhancing social justice, pursuit of employability agendas may well be creating two tiers of universities – those that produce docile employees and those that produce employers/leaders. And third, employability discourses may be adversely affecting pedagogies and curricula, to the disbenefit of students, institutions, employers, social justice and civil society.     

Moving Towards a Fair Start: equal gender opportunities and the careers service

Although there is now a considerable literature on gender inequality in education and employment, there is virtually no research on the Careers Service which provides a bridge between the two. Based on a national survey of all Careers Services conducted in 1987, this paper explores the significance afforded to gender discrimination and the nature and content of equal opportunities policies designed to counter it. It draws attention to the differences in meaning which the term ‘equal opportunities’ can have and to the changing context in which equal opportunities policies now operate.     

Enhancing Overseas Chinese Graduate Employability: The Case of Chinese Graduates with Finnish Academic Qualifications

This paper explores ways to enhance overseas Chinese graduate employability by taking Finnish-educated Chinese students/graduates as an example. In so doing, it understands that graduate employability development is a joint effort of multiple stakeholders including students, graduates, academics, program coordinators, employers, and policymakers. Accordingly, it provides arguments and suggestions for how to enhance the employability of these graduates in terms of the labor market context, employers’ beliefs and actions, the responsibilities of higher education institutions, and student/graduate commitment. It also points out two major challenges faced by overseas Chinese graduates as well as their educational providers, which are linked respectively to gaps between what graduates acquire in higher education and what is required in the labor market, as well as gaps from the employers’ perspective: areas where employers need to understand more about universities and catch up with new ideas generated by them.     

Business graduate employability – where are we going wrong?

Persistent gaps in certain non-technical skills in business graduates continue to impact on organisational performance and global competitiveness. Despite business schools' best efforts in developing non-technical skills, widely acknowledged as fundamental to graduate employability, there has been considerably less attention to measuring skill outcomes and even less on their subsequent transfer to the workplace. It appears stakeholders are assuming transfer occurs automatically in graduates, neglecting the influence of learning program, learner and workplace characteristics on this complex process and its potential impact on graduate employability. This paper unpacks the concept of transfer and proposes a model of graduate employability that incorporates the process. Measures for empirical analysis are discussed. Testing the model would indicate the extent to which transfer occurs and highlight collaborative strategies for employers, universities and graduates in nurturing learning and workplace environments in which transfer may flourish, taking us one step closer to the elusive ‘work-ready’ graduate.     

International graduates host country employment intentions and outcomes: Evidence from two Australian universities

ABSTRACT

A key attractor for many international students when choosing to study abroad is the prospect of gaining employment in the host country after graduating. From a university’s perspective this becomes an important attraction issue for both maintaining and increasing the number of international students as well as improving graduate employability. A survey was utilised to explore employment intentions and outcomes of international graduate alumni from two Australian universities (n = 511 and n = 648). A comparative analysis between the universities has been undertaken in relation to this and rates of unemployment amongst graduates. The study has coined the term Two-step migration intender for international students/graduates and contributes to a gap in the research in relation to international graduate mobility, career intentions and employment outcomes. The findings have strategic implications for the promotion of Australian higher education to overseas markets and can also inform higher education policy and practice in terms of strategies for promoting international graduate employability.     

Graduate attributes frameworks or powerful knowledge?

In this article, we examine graduate attributes as a conceptual framework. We theorise these are rooted in the neoliberalisation of the university and the increasing importance of employability as a marker for quality university teaching. Graduate attributes vary across institutions but often include ‘foundational’ as well as ‘non-foundational’ objectives, such as ‘global perspective’. Our theorisation sheds light on how they are operationalised through graduate attributes frameworks, maintaining these are difficult to implement because of a lack of shared understanding of the components and concerns about academic freedom. We argue graduate attributes frameworks should be abandoned and replaced with ‘powerful knowledge’, which more adequately structures the knowledge, skills and attributes universities can confidently equip their graduates with. Powerful knowledge provides an outcome that serves the individual learner, employers, universities and society more broadly.     

Discrepant stakeholder perspectives on graduate employability strategies

A literature review identified 12 strategies that have been empirically linked to improvements in graduate employability. A survey methodology was used to investigate self-reported use and/or perspectives on these strategies among four stakeholder groups. The following questions were asked: to students – What strategies are you using to improve your graduate employability; to graduates – What strategies did you use to improve your employability?; to higher education career development professionals and educators – Which of the following employability strategies do you provide for students?; and to employers – Which of the following strategies undertaken by students does your organisation value when recruiting graduates? Across the four stakeholder groups, 705 responses were received and analysed. The key findings were discrepancies between the strategies reported in the literature and those indicated in the surveys, as well as discrepancies between stakeholder groups in regard to which strategies were indicated.     

A class act? Lecturers’ views on undergraduates’ employability

This article details the findings of a study into lecturers’ perceptions of undergraduate employability. The investigation employed interviews with the staff on a BA (Hons) in Education Studies course at a post-1992 university. The aim was to examine staff beliefs regarding their students’ potential employability in the business and finance sectors. The staff believed the degree offered students the opportunity to develop ‘transferable’ skills that could potentially make them employable in business and finance, thus helping the students develop ‘absolute’ employability. However, some interviewees also believed the students may encounter class-based disadvantages in the labour market with the result that aspects of the students’ ‘relative’ employability were beyond their capacity to intervene. In light of growing policy pressure upon higher education professionals to ‘deliver’ increasingly employability-driven curricula, it is concluded that further research is needed into staff perceptions of their roles and capacities within this area.     

How stable is the stratification of higher education in England and Scotland?

This paper asks whether the institutional hierarchies defined by ‘golden triangle’, other Russell Group, other pre-1992 and post-1992 universities in England, and by ancient, old and new universities in Scotland, have become weaker since the 1990s. Using indicators constructed from Universities and Colleges Admissions Service data for 1996–2010, the article finds a stable hierarchical relationship among the sectors within each country, with some indicators showing a slight widening of status differences between sectors towards the end of the period. The main exception was a slight ‘upgrading’ of new (post-1992) universities in Scotland early in the period. There was little change in the association of institutional sector with social class, but in England the association with private secondary schools became slightly stronger and the association with ethnicity weakened.     

The significance of faith for Black men's educational aspirations

It is uncontested that British African Caribbean men are minimally represented in elite UK higher education institutions. Even as data demonstrates that African Caribbean males are more likely to study further education than White males 1 1 Research indicates that the proportion of UK‐domiciled Black students pursuing higher education degree courses has increased since the academic year 2003/04 (ECU, 2014 ).
and that the proportion of UK ‐domiciled Black students pursuing higher education has increased since the 2003/04 academic year (ECU , 2014), the representation of Black students throughout the Russell Group remains low. 2 2 It is important to acknowledge that on the whole, undergraduate Black students are over‐represented in higher education and in 2012/13 experienced the largest increase in the proportion of all BME students attending university to 6.3% (ECU, 2014 , p. 114). However, the majority of this increase in Black student representation is accounted for in non‐Russell Group institutions, particularly at the less prestigious universities that comprise the Million+ Group. The Million+ Group comprises the following universities: Abertay University, Anglia Ruskin University, Bath Spa University, University of Bedfordshire, University of Bolton, Canterbury Christ Church University, University of Cumbria, University of East London, Edinburgh Napier University, London Metropolitan University, London South Bank University, Middlesex University, Staffordshire University, University of Sunderland, University of West London, University of the West of Scotland and Southampton Solent University ( www.millionplus.ac.uk/who-we-are/our-affiliates/ ).
Less than 3% of the entire Russell Group's student population comprised British African Caribbean students in 2011/12 and 2012/2013 (ECU , 2013, p. 203; ECU , 2014, p. 358). However, according to the 2011 Census, ‘Black’ people represent 5.5% (3.1 million) of the total UK population (ONS , 2015). For the few Black men who are successful in attaining acceptance at these exclusive universities, to what assets or capitals do these young men attribute their ability to get to and successful graduate from these institutions? Interviews with 15 Black male students who attended Russell Group universities in England and Wales were analysed and several ‘capitals’ or resources were identified as beneficial to their ability to succeed. Drawing on Bourdieu's work on cultural and social capital, this paper advances the concept of ‘faith capital’ as a unique recognised asset that six of the participants described and reflected upon as being influential on their academic trajectories. Based on findings from the ESRC ‐funded research Exploring the narratives of the few: British African Caribbean male graduates of elite universities in England and Wales , this paper discusses these six participants’ accounts of their higher education journeys in relation to how they identified faith as a resource that was influential to their academic success.     

Graduate employability and educational context: a comparison between Great Britain and the Netherlands

Within policy circles, graduate employability remains a problem. It is often understood as an individual phenomenon, overlooking the influence of the organisation of higher education on the competition for graduate jobs. This article explores and compares how graduate employability is socially constructed within Great Britain and the Netherlands. It provides an analysis of both Dutch and British systems of higher education and explains how they shape the positional competition for graduate jobs. In addition it shows how perceptions of employability of final year university students relate to these two educational systems. The article is based on an empirical study on graduate employability in both countries using both micro analysis as well as contextual analysis. The article shows a fit between educational structure and employability strategies. The educational context shapes graduates' understandings and expectations of the competition for graduate jobs.     

Forms of capital and agency as mediations in negotiating employability of international graduate migrants

This study deployed a qualitative approach to explore an alternative perspective regarding graduate migrants’ employability. Twenty graduate migrants in Australia participated in in-depth interviews. Findings revealed graduate migrants faced various challenges in the target labour market, and to successfully secure employment it was important for them to develop key forms of capital – i.e., excellent technical knowledge, relationships with ‘significant others’, strong career identity and psychological resilience, and exercise agency in interlinking these capitals so that they could make use of their strengths and coat weaknesses. Results from the study imply that managing, teaching, and professional staff members should collaborate closely to develop well-rounded programmes to sufficiently equip international students with multidimensional resources.     

Logos,ethos, pathos and the marketing of higher education

ABSTRACT

This article utilises rhetorical analysis as a method to investigate course level marketing communications for undergraduate fashion marketing degrees in England. The purpose of this method is to explore the persuasive appeals of Aristotle’s triad of logos, ethos and pathos, how they are used and how these appeals could differ by university type. Sixteen course pages were analysed, with the analysis of course web pages shows a clear distinction between ‘types’ of university, with Post 92 institutions relying heavily on appeals to emotion (pathos) and giving more focus to ‘value for money’ that would be a concern to their students. Russell Group and Specialist universities rely more on appeals to ethos (credibility) and logos (fact/data) to market their courses. This research finds evidence of market segmentation, demonstrated through the different use of persuasive appeals to express the course focus, and giving insight to their target audience.     

Getting in,getting on: fragility in student and graduate identity

ABSTRACT

Over a period of three years this longitudinal study explored new approaches to consider student identity during the transition from university to employment. Students were followed through a new portfolio-based final year course and beyond university into the workplace. With universities increasingly recognising the employment aspirations of their students, facilitating self-awareness of graduate attributes and the development of employability skills are becoming integral to the higher education proposition; however the impact of employability initiatives is not well understood. The aim of the study was to examine changes in self-identification through the development of a portfolio of work using Holmes’ Claim Affirmation Model of Emergent Identity as the conceptual framework. Data were collected through student questionnaires and graduate interviews. The study uncovered the ways in which role models, developmental networks, and imaginings of a possible self were used in identity work. A fragile reconstruction of identity was observed as graduates faced the labour market, with this fragility continuing to be experienced while navigating an uncertain work landscape. We used these findings to allow us to refine Holmes’ Model by (a) adding a dynamic element and (b) grounding it on longitudinal data.     

International education and the employability of UK students

A common theme within the literature on higher education is the congested nature of the graduate labour market. Researchers have highlighted the lengths to which many students now go, in response to this congestion, to ‘distinguish themselves’ from other graduates: paying increased attention to university status; engaging in a range of extra‐curricular activities; and pursuing postgraduate qualifications. Studies that have focused on the strategies of Asian students, specifically, have pointed to the important place of studying abroad as a further strategy in this pursuit of distinction. Given that there is now some evidence that the number of UK students enrolling on a degree programme overseas is increasing, this article explores the extent to which an overseas education can be seen as part of a broader strategy on the part of British students to seek distinction within the labour market and whether such an education does indeed offer tangible employment benefits.     

What can research into graduate employability tell us about agency and structure?

Traditionally theorists who have written about agency and structure have eschewed empirical research. This article uses the findings of an empirical study into graduate employability to inform the sociological debate on how they relate to each other. The study examined how Dutch and British final-year students approach the labour market right before they graduate. The study revealed that the labour market and education structures are mirrored in how students understand and act within the labour market. It also showed that the interplay between agency and structure is mediated by an intersubjective framework shared by other students. The article argues that previous theoretical views on employability have failed to understand this and suggests how to improve our understanding of agency and structure.     

The relationship between A-level subject choice and league table score of university attended: the ‘facilitating’, the ‘less suitable’, and the counter-intuitive

Abstract

English students from less privileged backgrounds and state, rather than private, schools remain significantly under-represented at high-status universities. There has been little work to date on the role of A-level subject choice, as opposed to attainment, in access to university. Using linked administrative data for three recent cohorts of English entrants to UK universities, I examine the relationship between league table score of university attended and A-level subject choices, using a taxonomy of A-levels categorised according to their published efficacy for Russell Group university admission as ‘facilitating’, ‘useful’, or ‘less suitable’. I further examine the relationship of three ‘less suitable’ A-levels with league table score of university for related degree courses commonly leading to professional business careers (accountancy, business, and law). Holding more facilitating A-levels is associated with attending a higher ranked university overall, even controlling for degree subject, and the converse is true for ‘less suitable’ subjects. The heterogeneous relationships of professionally-related A-level subjects with university ranking make decision-making for aspirational 16-year-olds problematic: an apparently sensible subject choice for students wishing to prepare for a professional career may, in fact, put them at a disadvantage.     

“新农科”背景下一流人才培养路径探析——基于9所“双一流”建设农林高校2019年本科生就业数据的分析

高等农林教育是我国高等教育的重要组成部分,承担着为国家农业农村现代化、乡村振兴、脱贫攻坚等培养优秀人才的重任。通过梳理9所“双一流”建设农林高校发布的2019年本科毕业生就业质量报告,对毕业生就业基本情况、学生就业区域、就业行业、平均薪酬、专业相关度和就业满意度等进行分析,了解9所农林高校本科生的就业现状、存在的问题,探究新时代农林一流人才培养策略,提出通过增强主体意识,培养“一懂两爱”人才、强化服务意识,提升学生就业能力、注重个性发展,推进人才分类培养三条途径提升人才培养质量。