Authors: Chris Percy & Katherine Emms
Summary
This research looks at drivers of graduates’ career success, which can be linked to students’ university experience. It draws on graduate destination surveys commissioned by the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA), comparing graduates’ answers at approximately six months after graduation with their answers at 3.5 years after graduation for those leaving university in 2012/13.
Key findings
- For those from less privileged backgrounds, several factors are particularly strong drivers of career satisfaction: the reported importance of the degree for entry to employment, whether the degree included work experience, and university support for developing transferable skillls.
- The single strongest relationship with career satisfaction was graduates feeling that higher education provided them with the ability to function highly effectively at work across eight different transferable skills.
- The job relevance of the degree subject has a stronger link to career satisfaction than degree grade or qualification type, or whether the degree was useful as evidence for skills and competencies. However, less than 50% of graduates report that their subject was important for their entry into employment.
- Graduates who said they found their job through their university (such as via careers service or the course) were earning more on average than those who found it through any other route, having controlled for student prior attainment, socio-economic background and demographics. For instance, when compared to finding the job via a recruitment agency or website (the most common route), students finding work via their university were earning £1.2k more per year on average. However, only 8% of our core sample reported finding their job through the university.