The Graduate Pathways Survey: New Insights on Education and Employment Outcomes Five Years after Bachelor Degree Completion

The development of a strong and vibrant knowledge‐based economy is linked in direct ways with successful graduate outcomes. Building evidence‐based insights on such outcomes plays an important role in shaping planning and practice. With this broad objective in mind, this article analyses findings from the Graduate Pathways Survey, the first national study in Australia of bachelor degree graduate outcomes five years after course completion. It begins by discussing key rationales and research contexts to position the study internationally and in terms of research on graduate careers, quality assurance and planning. Focus is then turned to highlighting findings from the study, which involved a census of graduates from all Australian universities. It looks at graduates' perceptions of their degree and of its relevance to their work, their pathways into study and work and their salaries and satisfaction with their jobs. The article concludes by discussing the contribution of the findings for understanding graduates' work and development, and for enhancing higher education quality and planning.     

本专科毕业生的专业兴趣吻合度对就业满意度的影响研究

基于2021年全国高校毕业生就业状况调查数据,分析本专科毕业生的专业兴趣吻合度的影响因素,研究专业兴趣吻合度对就业满意度的影响,并分性别和学科进行异质性分析。研究发现：第一,性别、家庭背景、人力资本、学校背景等是毕业生专业兴趣吻合度的重要影响因素,男性、优势家庭背景、本科、人文社科专业、学业表现与综合素质更好、东部（非“北上广”）地区高校的毕业生,专业兴趣吻合度更高;第二,专业兴趣吻合度对毕业生的就业总体满意度与工资福利、工作地点、工作稳定性、个人发展空间、社会地位、独立自主性等单项满意度均存在正向促进作用,其中,对个人发展空间满意度的影响最大,对工资福利和工作稳定性满意度的影响最小;第三,专业兴趣吻合度对不同性别和学科毕业生的就业满意度存在异质性影响,男生和理工农医专业毕业生的就业满意度受专业兴趣吻合度的正向影响更大。     

谁进入医疗卫生单位？ ——基于2007-2017年全国高校毕业生调查的分析

当前我国高度重视发展健康事业，积极推进健康中国建设。作为健康中国的重要保障，医疗卫生人才队伍愈发受到重视。高校毕业生是进入医疗卫生单位的主力军。采用6次全国高校毕业生就业状况抽样调查数据，探究进入医疗卫生单位的毕业生群体特征及时间趋势，以及影响毕业生选择医疗卫生单位的显著性因素。研究发现，在时间趋势上，进入医疗卫生单位的男性毕业生占比有所下降，毕业生学科背景日益多元，毕业生的人力资本水平较高且有所提升，就业满意度较低且呈现一定波动但整体上表现为上升。从就业选择来看，高校毕业生对医疗卫生单位的就业偏好存在显著的学科、性别和城乡差异，所学专业与兴趣吻合、求职时重视职业的稳定性显著影响毕业生选择医疗卫生单位就业。     

Employment of College Graduates in the Era of Universalized Higher Education

The employment performance (including salaries, relevant to studies and job satisfaction) of college graduates from different school types and disciplines after the universalization of higher education in Taiwan was examined and a comparative analysis was conducted in this article. The findings were as follows: 1) "Medicine and health" and "industrial arts" were the best disciplines in terms of overall employment performance; however, "arts," "agriculture," "mass media," "physical education/other," "home economics," and "tourism services" performed poorly overall in terms of employment. 2) The graduates' employment performance in the school type of "public universities" was better than others for the most part in Taiwan; however, the graduates of "public universities" who majored in arts, agriculture, mass media, physical education/other, home economics, and tourism services did not do well in terms of their employment performance. Based on the analysis, from the viewpoint of employment, we suggested that Taiwan's colleges and universities restructure the disciplines within their institutions and we also offered some suggestions to high school graduates about how to choose higher education institutions and disciplines.     

Artists Becoming Teachers: Expressions of Identity Transformation in a Virtual Forum

This article is an investigation of art and design graduates' identities as they embark upon their training as teachers. The expressive, ‘confessional’ nature of forum posts from their Virtual Learning Environment are analysed in relation to the students' identity transformation into teachers. This transition is profound in the case of artist teachers, for whom the contrast between their practice as a critical artist and that of a regulated professional can be severe. The usage of these socially‐oriented virtual forums, and the students' identity transition is analysed in terms of identity theorists such as Butler, hooks and Wenger. There are problems of expression that are brought about by the juxtaposition of visually and spatially adept artist‐learners constrained within a largely textual environment, yet this impediment appears to be ameliorated by their social‐expressive exploitation of the forums.     

Monitoring the pathways and outcomes of people from disadvantaged backgrounds and graduate groups

The development of a strong and vibrant knowledge economy is linked directly to successful learning outcomes among university graduates. Building evidence‐based insights on graduate outcomes plays a particularly important role in shaping planning and practice. To this end, this paper analyses some key findings from the Graduate Pathways Survey, the first national study in Australia of bachelor degree graduates' outcomes five years after course completion. It focuses on the outcomes of graduates from disadvantaged groups, people of particular significance in an expanding and increasingly important higher education system. After advancing the rational for this analysis, the paper sketches the overall research approach. The paper continues with an analysis of education and employment outcomes for the target groups, and concludes by summarising implications for building further research insights.     

Leading change as a professional: working across boundaries

This paper outlines an initiative, namely a leadership symposium, which developed from a chance meeting of like-minded academics, who were trying to achieve similar outcomes with their student groups; namely, to include the scholarly activity of disseminating graduates’ action-oriented projects. One group of graduates comprised a mix of healthcare professionals, the other group comprised teachers. Both were leading change projects across their professions. One group was guided by action research and the other by action learning. This paper outlines the graduates' experiences of their challenges, opportunities and learning from leading these change initiatives. Arising from the symposium exchanges, the authors focus on the unique opportunity of the event as a distinctive space for exchange of learning across professions. Findings from qualitative data collected for the symposium are supported by situated learning and existing literature.     

Post‐graduation reflections on the value of a degree

This article investigates the impact of a changing higher education system on young adults' priorities and motivations. A considerable number of studies have explored the impact of recent changes on patterns of participation within higher education. However, there has been less emphasis on how such changes have been played out in the experiences of graduates and, more specifically, in the interface between higher education and lifelong learning. To redress this gap, this article explores the changes to graduates' experiences brought about by the ‘massification’ of the higher education system. Research conducted amongst young people in Australia has suggested that as result of the normalisation of post‐compulsory education and the encouragement of high aspirations, young people have come to assume a one‐to‐one relationship between being qualified and having a lasting professional career. It has been argued that as a result of these assumptions, young adults are often disappointed when they do eventually enter the labour market, and experience uncertainties previously associated with the end of compulsory schooling. If young adults do indeed feel misled about the rewards of a higher education, it is possible that this may have a significant bearing on their perceptions of the value of engaging in further education and training in the future. Drawing on 90 life history interviews with graduates in their mid‐twenties, this article explores the prevalence of such attitudes in the UK and their impact on young adults' attitudes to lifelong learning.     

Graduating in uncertain times: The impact of COVID-19 on recent graduate career prospects,trajectories and outcomes

This article examines the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on recent UK graduates' initial employment outcomes and how they experience the transition into a challenging labour market context. We draw on longitudinal survey and interview data, collected from recent graduates who had mainly graduated during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in summer 2020 that examines graduate perception of the labour market, impacts on labour market entry impacts and early career progression and effects of periods of unemployment or under-employment. The article shows some of the main impacts of the recent pandemic-affected labour market, including: widespread concerns about job opportunities and employer support, the perceived employment impacts of the pandemic and early signs of scarring and labour market disorientation amongst those who were struggling to find employment of their choice. Such experiences are clearly intensified during the specific COVID-19 context, but the policy implications they raise have wider relevance for supporting graduates during future periods of labour market volatility.     

Evaluating Undergraduate Education: the use of broad indicators

The aim of this study was to examine the extent to which broad indicators of performance, such as student satisfaction with program, teaching, student life and experiences after graduation, could be used for program improvement. Information was obtained from graduates of a major research university in Canada who had received an undergraduate professional degree during the period from 1983 to 1992. Perceived quality of teaching was found to contribute significantly to graduates' rating of the overall quality of their academic program. The most frequently mentioned meaningful feature of their undergraduate education for alumni was the development of the ability to think. The results suggest the need for policy changes to improve teaching and the need for greater organizational coherence in post‐secondary institutional evaluations.     

Who knows what school leavers and graduates are doing? Comparing information systems within Europe

Many current national and institutional education policies address the issue of raising participation amongst young people and enhancing employability after leaving school or university. What sort of information are these policies built on? This paper compares national information systems from the last three decades across Europe that gather information on school leavers' and graduates' pathways after compulsory education. Using documentary data collected systematically the paper describes the main focus, the research design and the sampling frame of the school leavers' and graduates' information systems (SLGIS) arriving at several different typologies. This paper gives an overall picture of what sort of research is conducted within the area of school leaving and graduation and points out the advantages and disadvantages of the different approaches. Beyond these, the paper gives an indication of how the school leavers’ and graduates’ data are used within the different European contexts and points towards the next steps of this meta-research: case-studies on how the school leavers' and graduates' data are applied at the national and the institutional level.     

Identifying the challenging factors in the transition from colleges of engineering to employment

The transition from university to a career in engineering is a challenging process. This study examined the perceptions of engineering graduates regarding the difficulties they encountered in their transition from the university to the workplace. Lebanese practising engineers (n=217), living around the world, were surveyed to identify their current employment situations and their attitudes toward their academic preparation. Factor analysis revealed three main challenges facing engineering graduates: communication; responsibility; self-confidence. Seventeen interviews were conducted to gather information on ways to facilitate this transition. Comments reflected the need for better collaboration between engineering schools and engineering firms. The results will provide insight for engineering colleges, faculty members and administrators into the challenges faced by graduates and their aspirations for a smoother transition into employment.     

‘A different kind of reading’: the emergent literacy practices of a school‐based graphic novel club

This paper explores the possibilities for pedagogy inherent in the reading practices which emerged from an extra‐curricular graphic novel reading group set up in a Scottish secondary school. The research is presented within the framework of the new literacy studies and its focus on ‘practices’ and ‘events’ but, more specifically, it uses the framework developed by researchers working on the Literacies for Learning in Further Education Project conducted recently in the United Kingdom. This framework allows a more detailed exploration of ‘events’ by unpacking the fine‐grained aspects that compose a literacy practice. This paper aims to identify, trace and analyse the aspects of the emerging new practice of this reading group. While the framework it employs is based on an opposition between curricular and non‐curricular practices, the data presented in this paper derives from an extra‐curricular activity uniquely positioned inside the school but outside of the official curriculum. By focusing on notions of identity and process in particular, the paper presents a critique of the ways in which literacy practices which take place outside of the classroom have been undervalued or ignored by educational policy and practice.     

高校毕业生行业收入差距成因探析

利用2009-2017年全国高校毕业生就业调查数据,采用倾向得分匹配和Oaxaca-Blinder成因分解等实证方法,对高校毕业生行业收入差距的成因进行探析。研究结果表明：毕业生行业收入差距在总体上存在拉大趋势,行业收入差距更多体现在行业间;新兴服务业（金融和IT）既是高校毕业生最热衷进入的行业,又是存在显著收入溢价的行业;行业间的个人、家庭、工作和人力资本特征差异是造成行业间收入差距的重要原因,其中人力资本异质性的贡献度更大;排除以上因素的影响,能力相似的毕业生因为选择进入新兴服务业,起薪至少显著高12%。这意味着新兴服务业从业人员的收入溢价主要源于毕业生选择进入新兴服务业,而不是因为进入新兴服务业的毕业生的人力资本水平更高,家庭背景更好,或者从事的工作岗位级别更高。     

Linking the components of a university program to the qualification profile of graduates: The case of a sustainability‐oriented environmental science curriculum

A university Environmental Sciences curriculum is described against the background of requirements for environmental problem solving for sustainability and then analyzed using data from regular surveys of graduates (N = 373). Three types of multiple regression models examine links between qualifications and curriculum components in order to derive some conclusions about which qualifications are enhanced by which curriculum components. The underlying rationale of these models is that assessments of the importance of a certain component (and the time graduates think should be allocated to it) should increase with the workplace demand for the qualifications it provides. A comprehensive set of 19 qualifications was used, subdivided into three areas of environmental problem‐solving skills (A, basic scientific and technological skills; B, transformation‐oriented skills; and C, sociopolitical skills) and two areas of transferable skills (D, individual key skills and E, social and communication skills). Relationships identified by different regression models are discussed in terms of mutual consistency and with regard to the design, content, and learning goals of the curriculum components. Many plausible relationships were identified. Using such regression models is a promising indirect method that may be generally applicable for the explorative qualification‐oriented evaluation of university curricula and their fundamental components based on graduates' judgments. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 46: 537–569, 2009     

Examination for Bias in Principal Ratings of Teachers' Preparation

The Department of Education is moving to change accountability for teacher preparation institutions to include surveys of the graduates and their supervising principal following paid employment. This study describes one of a number of quantitative studies that examine the validity and usefulness of such follow-up surveys. Using multiple years of data, the authors examined the effect of teacher socioeconomic status and ethnicity on principals' evaluation of the teachers' preparation. The results indicated that there was no difference in ratings based on graduates' parent education, family income, or ethnicity. Post hoc evaluation showed that Latino teachers were rated better prepared to work with diversity in the classroom and to teach English learners. Bias does not appear to be part of principal evaluation. However, because principals are prone to rating teachers on a binary, satisfactory/unsatisfactory basis, follow-up surveys may not be the most useful tool for assessing some nuances of teacher preparation.     

Asia-born New Zealand-educated business graduates' transition to work

In 2008 the Asia New Zealand Foundation commissioned a three-year project examining Asia-born New Zealand-educated business graduates' study to work transitions. Data were collected through annual online surveys and in-depth interviews. Graduates were asked to discuss their post-study experiences, reflections on studying in New Zealand, and perceptions of their New Zealand business education. Participants included 171 (phase one), 76 (phase two) and 41 (phase three) students and recent graduates. All except one were based in New Zealand or the Asia region. In this paper we draw on “engaged pedagogy” and “functional capabilities” perspectives to consider phase two and three participants' accounts of their study to work transition pathways. Specifically, we examine two “functional capabilities” that participants discussed in relation to their post-study experiences: having economic opportunities and developing a sense of affiliation. We highlight some barriers to each “capability” that emerged in participants' accounts and consider how participants envisaged their role in fostering ongoing Asia-New Zealand connections. We conclude with some suggested implications for policy and practice in New Zealand and in internationalized HE more generally.     

Reflective practice in the transition phase from university student to novice graduate: implications for teaching reflective practice

Reflective practice is widely taught within higher education and is regarded as beneficial to developing graduates' ability to practise effectively within professional environments. In spite of widespread acceptance of the merits of reflective practice, a comprehensive understanding of teaching reflective practice remains incomplete and contested. This paper reports on a study undertaken to explore physiotherapy students' experiences and perceptions of learning reflective practice in order to critically and meaningfully inform current teaching practice. The findings identified that students and graduates conceptualised reflective practice in terms of the challenges they faced in the concrete tasks of daily novice practice. They used methods of reflection that were embedded in the context of their daily practice with particular emphasis on using social and collective opportunities for reflection. The preferred methods of reflective practice used by students and graduates contrasted with traditional approaches to teaching reflective practice. This study supports rethinking approaches for teaching reflective practice to incorporate approaches that are embedded within real and daily practice experiences.     

Enhancing quality: Listening to participant voices to improve our Master's program in special education

Newly inducted special education teachers must be well-prepared to address changes in today's schools, including increased student diversity, implementation of tiered systems of support, and the need for increased collaboration with general education teachers and specialists. The purpose of this qualitative study was to develop and implement a data-based continual improvement approach to identify the strengths of our special education Master's program and address changes needed to ensure that graduates are ready to engage with the demands of their chosen profession. Using data gathered from 24 recent graduates and 20 field mentors, we describe our model and what we have done with our results over two years. An important finding is that our students greatly value the relationships they form during the program and the relationships the faculty model, and participants attribute our graduates' skills in collaboration to our program's modeling of collaborative processes and positive relationships. Implications for effective approaches to continuous improvement of special education teacher preparation programs are discussed.     

Guiding explanation construction by children at the entry points of learning progressions

Policy documents in science education suggest that even at the earliest years of formal schooling, students are capable of constructing scientific explanations about focal content. Nonetheless, few research studies provide insights into how to effectively provide scaffolds appropriate for late elementary‐age students' fruitful creation of scientific explanations. This article describes two research studies to address the question, what makes explanation construction difficult for elementary students? The studies were conducted in urban fourth, fifth, and sixth grade classrooms where students were learning science through curricular units that contained 8 weeks of scaffold‐rich activities focused on explanation construction. The first study focused on the kind and amount of information scaffold‐rich assessments provided about young students' abilities to construct explanations under a range of scaffold conditions. Results demonstrated that fifth and sixth grade tests provided strong information about a range of students' abilities to construct explanations under a range of supported conditions. On balance, the fourth grade test did not provide as much information, nor was this test curricular‐sensitive. The second study provided information on pre–post test achievement relative to the amount of curricular intervention utilized over the 8‐week time period with each cohort. Results demonstrated that when taking the amount of the intervention into account, there were strong learning gains in all three grade‐level cohorts. In conjunction with the pre–post study, a type‐of‐error analysis was conducted to better understand the nature of errors among younger students. This analysis revealed that our youngest students generated the most incomplete responses and struggled in particular ways with generating valid evidence. Conclusions emphasize the synergistic value of research studies on scaffold‐rich assessments, curricular scaffolds, and teacher guidance toward a more complete understanding of how to support young students' explanation construction. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 49: 141–165, 2012