Graduates' evaluations of usefulness of university education, and early career success -A longitudinal study of the transition to working life AbstractA successful transition from university to working life requires that graduates are able to employ their education and academic competences in real working-life contexts. Our previous research showed that graduates varied in how they were able to reflect on their competences at the time of graduation.The present longitudinal mixed-method study follows the same graduates and explores their evaluations of the usefulness of university education and career success, three years after graduation.The follow-up data consisted of 57 graduates' survey answers analysed by quantitative and qualitative methods. The results showed that graduates who were able to describe and evaluate more competences at the time of graduation perceived their current jobs to correspond more to their education. Graduates with more limited evaluations of their competences, on the other hand, had experienced more challenges related to employment and were more uncertain of their goals. The results also showed that having diverse competences and an ability to recognise them at the time of graduation is important for later career success and may also be related to what kind of challenges graduates face in working life. Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education

Many factors influence students' progress in higher education. However, the students' own voices are seldom heard. Using a qualitative approach, the study explored students' own experiences of the factors that have influenced their studying. Research has indicated that students' experiences are often related to their approaches to learning. Therefore, experiences of enhancing and impeding factors were explored here in relation to different study profiles. Altogether 736 open-ended answers were analysed by qualitative context analysis. After establishing the categories of enhancing and impeding factors and creating the student profiles, the differences between the profiles were examined using chi-square tests. The results revealed that the students had experienced a broad variety of factors that influenced their studying. These experiences varied widely with regard to the students' study profiles. In particular, those in the Students applying a surface approach and Unorganised students applying a deep approach profiles appeared to experience more obstacles in their studies than the students in other profiles. Characteristic of these two profiles was the students' low ability to organise their studies, that is, manage their time and effort. The study suggests that at least part of the variation in students' experiences of the factors influencing their progress is explainable by the students' learning profiles. Whether it would be useful to identify different student profiles rather than concentrate on asking the students directly about their experiences of enhancing and impeding factors is discussed.

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This study examines, using a cross-sectional approach, the digital competence of academic teachers at a time when teaching shifted to digital distance learning at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Teachers from different academic fields at a large multidisciplinary Finnish university (N = 265) responded to a questionnaire about the purposes for which they use digital tools in teaching, how they evaluated their competence at distance teaching during the lockdown of March-May 2020 and their beliefs about distance teaching. The respondents used digital tools in teaching mostly for delivering information. According to their evaluations, their competence in distance teaching increased during the early stages of COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, but their beliefs about distance teaching did not relate to the feelings of competence. Respondents with no experience in distance teaching before the lockdown evaluated their competence as having increased more than did respondents with previous experience. The implications of the findings for understanding competence development are then discussed.

University students often work during their studies, and working is considered to be one reason for high dropout rates or slow progress in studies. Moreover, the nature of students' work experience varies greatly. The study aimed to explore how working while studying is related to study success, and took approaches to learning and the nature of the work experience into account. A total of 1023 students completed a questionnaire at the time of their graduation. The results showed that doing other academic work was related to a deep approach to learning, and non-academic work was related to a surface approach and unorganised studying. Moreover, the results revealed that organised studying has an important role in terms of study pace. The study suggests that by emphasising students' organising skills and supporting their deep-level learning, students have better possibilities to create links between work experience and studies.