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Making the best use of Africa's graduates and the role of international partnerships

The Practicalities of Implementing Institutional Research into the Employment Destination of Graduating Students. Making the best use of Africa's graduates and the role of international partnerships British Council and the Association of the Commonwealth Universities

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Making the best use of Africa's graduates and the role of international partnerships

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  1. The Practicalities of Implementing Institutional Research into the Employment Destination of Graduating Students Making the best use of Africa's graduates and the role of international partnerships British Council and the Association of the Commonwealth Universities 16-18 January 2011, Accra, Ghana Dr Michael Gregory, Pro Vice-Chancellor (Planning & Quality), University of the South Pacific Email gregory_m@usp.ac.fj www.drmichaelgregory.com

  2. Resource Materials on Graduate Employability • Can be found at: www.mgregorygraduateemployment.weebly.com

  3. Member Countries of USP…across 33 million square kilometres of Ocean Tokelau

  4. FAST FACTSUSP In 2010: • 20,225 students were enrolled • 1,947 were postgraduates • 40 per cent throughdistance learning mode • Students came from 47 countries world-wide 33 million

  5. Graduate First Destination Survey • Stopped in 2004 • Reinstituted in 2010 • No of drivers to reinstitute it: • Graduate employability is an “important marketing tool” (Harvey, 2001) • Increasing competition: new HE providers; 2 new universities in Fiji and others in the region • Strategic Plan: “quality, relevance and sustainability” • A first step; further steps to undertake employer surveys to better understand technical skills and personal attribute needs of graduates (Bhanugopan & Fish, 2009) • STAR project (Strategic Total Academic Review): complete overhaul of the USP academic structures

  6. Timing • GDS asks questions regarding the first destination of students following their graduation • 2 major graduations at USP each year: May and September (each approximately 4 months after students complete their award) [UK 5/6 months; Australia 5 months] • Results brought together in a single report for planning – goes to executive management and to Deans, Senate and summary results presented to Council as one of a set of KPIs reported annually

  7. Combined with Student Experience Surveys • In 2010, several student surveys introduced: • Early Experience Survey (entering students 8 weeks into their programme) • Year 2 Expectations/Satisfaction of Students Survey (based on Noel Levitz type instrument) asks detailed questions on full first year experience • GDS • And combined with the GDS, administered at the same time, the “STUDENT EXPERIENCE SURVEY”, asks about the students full career at USP • The aim is to gain much better data on the student experience to better inform planning and aid information informed decision-making

  8. Thinking about the Instrument • Drew on instruments in use in Australia, UK, Botswana to enable comparability and possible benchmarking with Australian universities • Revised, tried to avoid inappropriate phrases • Major problem was the geographical spread of USP across 12 countries, high migration and changes of address/lack of mobile phones/postal inadequacies/apathy to respond/need to reassure and explain to students about how to fill the form in and why it was important/also to reassure them it would not be used for other purposes

  9. Electronic or Manual • This was a major issue especially as USP relied on electronic delivery of many of its services. Felt, however, this would not yield an accurate response (22% in previous surveys. Our aim was >50%) • Administered it manually therefore when graduands came to collect their gowns. • Response rate in May 2010 was 60% and in September 2010 was 65% • Target response for 2011 is 70% • UK response rate 2008/9 is 79% • Australia response rate 2010 is 61.5%

  10. How we Raised the Response Rate • Used an incentive (5 x $2,000 vouchers for Laptop/mobile phone) • Manual administration and a booth at gown collection • Full-time officer • Close liaison and cooperation with Student Academic Services • Guarantee of individual confidentiality (although student ID numbers collected

  11. Location, Responsibility and Administration • Located in Planning & Quality Office (no careers advisory service) yet at USP • Full-time officer appointed • Manual inputting of results into SPSS (Excel just as good) by team of graduate assistants, verified by the officer [in 2011 will be moving to scanning software for more speedy and smart inputting] • Worked hard to get a team from SAS to help: enthusiasm and interest for the study • In September realised we could cut the form down from 4 sides to 2 sides (students had complained about the length) by obtaining demographic data of students from our MIS (Banner) system. Reduced cost, made form simpler and inputting faster as could merge data through a data extract also improved consistence and speeded verification

  12. Some Features of the Survey Instrument • May Form: J:\Graduate Destination Form May 2010 USP.pdf • September Form Graduate Destination Form September 2010 USP.pdf

  13. Key Findings of GDS 2010 Response Rate 1. Of a population of 836 in September 2010 and 1225 in April 2010, the response rates were 65% (545) and 60% (735) respectively. Graduate Destination Survey: Key Findings 2. In September 2010, 64% of the graduates were engaged in some kind of work four months after completion of their awards including full‐time and part‐time work compared to 71% in April 2010. 3. For both September 2010 and April 2010, the percentage of female graduates in some form of employment was marginally higher than male graduates. In September 2010, 34% females and 32% males were in some form of employment compared to 37% females and 36 % males in April 2010. 4. In September 2010, 43% of the ≤ 25 year old graduates were in employment compared to 37% of the >25 year old graduates. For April 2010 graduates, both >25 year old and ≤ 25 year old graduates were in employment at an even 36%. 5. In September 2010 and April 2010, 21% and 16% respectively of the ≤ 25 year old graduates fall under the Not working and seeking work category compared to 7% and 6% of the >25 year old graduates within this category. 6. For September 2010 graduates, 28.1% are earning less than F$15,000 compared to 23.0% of April 2010 USP graduates (Used the graduate level entry point to the civil service as a proxy). 7. In September 2010, a lower proportion or 7.5% of graduates were earning more than F$30,000 compared to 8.4% in April 2010. REPORT: J:\USP GDS APR 2010 AND SEP 2010 - 23 Dec 2010.pdf

  14. Importance for Planning and Quality Enhancement and Next Steps • Improved information on first destination of USP graduates • Sectoral employment • Initial earnings of USP graduates • Marketing information • Longitudinal study of 2007 graduates in 2011 • Development of an alumni database (populating it with post 2006 graduates initially) • Employer survey • STAR: project on graduate attributes: match with employer expectations to inform curriculum

  15. End • Thank you gregory_m@usp.ac.fj www.drmichaelgregory.com www.mgregorygraduateemployability.weebly.com

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