The World of Higher Education Podcast Listen now →

The World of Higher Education Podcast Listen now →

Category: PSE Outcomes

Universities and Employment: Whose Job is it, Anyway?

Not surprisingly, a few of our readers have been pushing back on the series this week. Mainly, they’re skeptical that universities, in fact, have any responsibility where is employment is concerned. One line of argument is that students, themselves, are not in fact that concerned with employment. Exhibit #1 for this view is usually the well-known factoid that although 80% of students say they are at university to improve their employment prospects, a similar percentage say they are there because

Read More »
May 29, 2012 2 Comments

What Students Want to Be

…when they grow up, that is. It’s a question we don’t ask that often. Yet since one of higher education’s supposed purposes is to give students a leg up in the search for work, it’s the kind of thing you’d think we’d want to know. So, anyways, using our CanEd Student Research Panel, we asked 1280 students across the country about their employment futures. For starters, we asked them what sector they saw themselves as destined for. Expected Employment by

Read More »
May 25, 2012 2 Comments

Measuring Graduate Quality

A few months ago, I was in a discussion with a number of colleagues about how one should go about measuring how well universities and colleges prepare students for the labour market. It’s a tough question to answer. Employment rates aren’t helpful because those move with the economic cycle (and in places like Alberta with tight labour markets, low unemployment might be more of a sign of desperation for warm bodies than it is of educational quality). Employer satisfaction surveys

Read More »
May 24, 2012 No Comments

Discontent over Employment

It’s that time of year when the subjects of “education” and “jobs” are inextricably linked. When the economy is good, the stories are about go-getting recent graduates, and how they’re changing the world, etc. Universities then use this publicity to argue for more research money. “Look at all the great stuff our graduates do,” they say. “Our education gets kids jobs!” When the economy is bad, on the other hand, universities are subject to variations of Margaret Wente’s recent irritating

Read More »
May 23, 2012 No Comments

Does Debt Affect Career Choice?

A lot of hypotheses about the negative effects of student debt (some of which I was responsible for, 15 or so years ago), have, over time, been shown to be wrong. The one about debt being a serious deterrent to access, for instance (at least at current levels of borrowing); or the one about how increased student debt delays family formation. But what about the hypothesis that higher levels of student debt might leading students to take “jobs that pay

Read More »
May 22, 2012 1 Comment

One Thought to Start Your Day

One Thought to Start Your Day is our founder and CEO Alex Usher’s popular daily blog, brimming with up-to-the-minute insights and informed opinions on today’s higher education industry.

Subscribe

Search Posts

Search Publications

Social Media

Linkedin Youtube Spotify

Recent Posts

More thoughts on...