Help wanted, apply within: seeking DLHE graduate employability data and other exciting opportunities

Professor Craig Mahoney 9th May 2013

National population 63 million

HE population 2.5 million

International Students430,000

TNE on UK programmes 500,000

Population under 30 in HE 43%

Academic staff in UK HE 180,000

Staff qualified to teach 38,000

UG = 1.9 million, PG = 600,000

Some numbers to get you started!

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Fee Structure Across the UK

Domicile of student

Location of institution

England Scotland Wales NI

England Up to £9k Up to £9k Up to £9k Up to £9k

Scotland Up to £9k No fee Up to £9k Up to £9k

WalesUp to

£3,465*Up to

£3,465*Up to

£3,465*Up to

£3,465*

NI Up to £9k Up to £9k Up to £9k Up to £3,465* balance met by Welsh Government through a non-means tested tuition fee grant, of up to £5,535,

• Higher education in UK, most turbulent times for decades/centuries

• High performance, less money, less time, less flexibility, more regulation

• Significant funding cuts, change in student population, increase in expectations

• Students at the heart, their needs heightened, their awareness raised and their voices heard

• Student numbers & tight number controls

• Future impact unclear & possibility of fragile business models

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Challenges – the short list!

• Blokes want data. Blokes like;

• Stephen Farry

• Leighton Andrews

• Mike Russell

• David Willetts

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Who wants data?

• Return on investment

• Policy drivers

• Responsible government

• HEI Performance Indicators

• Employer responsiveness and sensitivity to changing careers

• Monitor student demand

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What purpose data to government?

• HEI awarding the degree

• Classification of the degree

• Academic discipline studied

• Transcript of modules studied

• HEAR, transferable skills and graduate attributes

• Employment rates by broad subject

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What sits behind the data?

Policymakers

Institutions

Employers

Parents

Prospective students

Current students

International bodies

The public?

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Who else wants the data?

An under-appreciated national treasure

• Not just a survey of unemployment or jobs that graduates do.

covers the courses they study, how much they get paid (if at all)

where they are working and even how they found their job

useful for careers, for university administration and for policy

Not Just a Survey

• DLHE is one of the world’s best examinations of the employment of graduates

extremely comprehensive (80% coverage for early DLHE)

covers graduates at all qualification levels

only the Australians really have a comparable national survey

the early survey has been going for 50 years, so a rich time series

it’s followed up with a sample after 3.5 years

World's Best?

• HECSU use it to;

help careers advisors understand what graduates actually do when they graduate

produce publications on career options for university applicants

examine local jobs markets

investigate postgraduate study and the outcomes of that study

look into demand for specific subjects and occupations

track how graduates look for jobs and how that changes over time

How DLHE data is used

1. Commercial awareness (or business acumen)

2. Communication

3. Teamwork

4. Negotiation and persuasion

5. Problem solving

6. Leadership

7. Organisation

8. Perseverance and motivation

9. Ability to work under pressure

10. Confidence

Graduate Employment Skills

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CBI forecast predicts GDP growth to hit 0.6% for 2012 rising to 2% in 2013 (May 2012)

HEA’s Postgraduate Research Experience Survey (PRES) 2011:

50% agreed "I am encouraged to reflect on my professional development needs" (compared to 43% in 2009)

http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/resources/detail/employability/pedagogy_for_employability_update_2012

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Employability

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Changing world

Responding to a changing world. Preparing students for a ‘globalised’ workplace and for the tough jobs market. PRES also found that no more than half of PGR students surveyed in 2011 agreed they had had their career and professional development needs met:

Professional Development and Career questions, % agree (Q7)

43.90%50.10% 47.20%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

7a) I am encouraged to think about the range of career opportunities that

are available to me.

7b) I am encouraged to reflect on my professional

development needs

7c) I am encouraged to reflect on my career development needs

% a

gre

e

• Disparity between students’ perceptions of employability and those of employers

• Employers and students’ value work experience but barriers exist in provision and access

• Students lack awareness of SMEs in terms of requirements and opportunities

• Employers are confused by the range of employability awards and how to assess their value

• Many students are not engaged with employability or with enterprise education

• Assessing the impact of employability support is a challenge and needs to be addressed

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Perspectives – employer v student

Press Release Strictly embargoed until 00.01hrs Monday 14th January 2013

New research shows the graduate job market stalled in 2012 but vacancies at Britain’s leading employers are set to increase again in 2013

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High Fliers

High Fliers Research LimitedKing’s Gate, 1 Bravingtons Walk, London N19AETelephone 020 7428 9000 Fax 020 7428 9111 Email surveys@highfliers.co.uk

Institutional data: a potentially rich source of untapped information useful for planning and decision-making that is underexploited by institutions.

Yorke et al, 2005

Universities need to extract from the data around them intelligence needed to make sound decisions if they are to succeed in these challenging times.

Bekhradnia, 2005; 2007

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Gold in them there hills?

Reports that say that something hasn't happened are always interesting to me, because as we know,

there are known knowns; there are things we know we know.

We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know.

But there are also unknown unknowns - the ones we don't know we don't know.

Donald H. Rumsfeld, 2002 20

Tackling the knowns and unknowns

DLHE

KIS: employability data

Curriculum development

Marketing Course

development/ market intelligence

Student experience:

triangulation with other data sources

(eg. NSS)

Prompts and levers for further

investigation

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One DLHE, many uses

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% employed by subject area 2010/11

Subject area EmployedUnemployed

Medicine & dentistry 90.8% 1.4%

Subjects allied to medicine 86.1% 4.4%

Biological sciences 67.5% 8.1%

Veterinary science 86.8% 6.4%

Agriculture & related subjects 67.1% 6.7%

Physical sciences 62.0% 9.2%

Mathematical sciences 61.6% 9.0%

Computer science 68.2% 12.7%

Engineering & technology 73.1% 8.8%

Architecture, building & planning 77.5% 7.9%

Social studies 73.8% 8.2%

Law 61.5% 7.1%

Business & administrative studies 76.6% 8.4%

Mass communications & documentation 75.9% 11.0%

Languages 64.7% 8.7%

Historical & philosophical studies 63.2% 8.5%

Creative arts & design 70.5% 10.8%

Education 88.4% 3.8%

Combined 70.8% 5.9%

Full-time first degree leavers by subject in Statistical First Release 178

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Curriculum Relevance

Must develop a curricula robustly informed by a broader world view – not too British-centric or Euro-centric

• Individual institutional mission

• Enterprise & IT supported

• Broader knowledge

• Graduate and transferable skills

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On-going Development

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Graduate Employment?

The music-graduate human scarecrow: 'You've got to take every opportunity‘

Guardian, Monday 8 October 2012