Employability outcomes for university joint honours graduates

Pigden, Louise; Moore, Andrew Garford

doi:10.1108/heswbl-11-2017-0088

Cited by 4 publications

(27 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…Contrasting this, at Post-92 universities, single honours graduates are -8.3% points lower and joint honours graduates -11.9% points lower than the national average for highly skilled destinations for their respective honours type. Furthermore, Pigden & Moore (2018) find that the gap between the proportion of joint honours graduates in highly skilled destinations compared with single honours graduates is much smaller at the Russell Group, compared with Post-92 universities. At the Russell Group, the gap between single and joint honours graduates is just -1.52% points, but at Post-92 universities the gap is -7.13% points.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 86%

“…The current study specifically built upon the methodology and analysis of highly skilled destinations (either graduate employment or further study) for joint honours graduates used in Pigden & Moore (2017) and Pigden & Moore (2018). In order to identify the proportion of graduates in a highly skilled destination, the DLHE survey data, provided by HESA, was analysed via a unique, customised dataset incorporating additional, publicly non-published data on the academic subjects studied by the graduate.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The first two tables, Table 2 and Table 3, updated the analysis of Pigden & Moore (2018), with two additional academic years of DLHE data. Using the same definition of a joint honours degree, the analysis of DLHE showed that from 2011/12 to 2015/16, there was a year on year decline in the proportion of graduates with a joint honours degree, compared with the proportion of all single honours graduates (including subjects not available to study as joint honours).…”

Section: Proportion Of Graduates By Honours Type In the Uk Between 20mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The current study sought to build on the previous work of Pigden & Moore (2018) which finds nationally an approximate -3% point negative gap between the proportion of joint honours graduates in highly skilled destinations compared with single honours graduates. Pigden & Moore (2018) find however that both single and joint honours graduates from the Russell Group are more employable compared with the national average and 'both single and joint honours graduates of the Russell Group exceeded the national average (of graduates in highly skilled destinations) by +9.04% points for single honours and +10.59% points for joint honours' (Pigden & Moore, 2018) for their respective honours type. Contrasting this, at Post-92 universities, single honours graduates are -8.3% points lower and joint honours graduates -11.9% points lower than the national average for highly skilled destinations for their respective honours type.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…By adding in POLAR4 quintile data, the main research question explored in the current study was whether this participation factor correlated with highly skilled destinations for joint honours graduates, who had studied at the Russell Group or Post-92 universities. The intention behind the study was to analyse whether the effects found in Pigden & Moore (2018) whereby the Russell Group joint honours graduates are far more likely to be in highly skilled destinations than their Post-92 university counterparts, and with a much smaller gap, was due, in part, to an association with POLAR4 participation rates.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Educational advantage and employability of UK university graduates

Pigden

Moore

2019

HESWBL

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Purpose In the UK, the majority of university students specialise and study just one subject at bachelor degree level, commonly known in the UK as a single honours degree. However, nearly all British universities will permit students if they wish to study two or even three subjects, so-called joint or combined honours degrees, internationally known as a double major. The purpose of this paper is to explore whether educational advantage, measured by the “Participation of Local Areas” (POLAR) classification, correlated with rates of graduate destinations for joint and single honours graduates. This study focused particularly on Russell Group and Post-92 Universities. Design/methodology/approach The authors analysed the complete data set provided from the Higher Education Statistics Agency Destination of Leavers from the Higher Education survey, and combined this with data from the POLAR4 quintiles, which aggregate geographical regions across the UK based on the proportion of its young people that participate in higher education. The data were analysed to establish whether there was a difference in the highly skilled graduate employability of the joint honours students, focusing particularly on Russell Group and Post-92 Universities, in order to build on previous published work. Findings Single honours and joint honours graduates from higher participation POLAR4 quintiles were more likely to be in a highly skilled destination. However at both the Russell Group and the Post-92 universities, respectively, there was no trend towards a smaller highly skilled destinations gap between the honours types for the higher quintiles. For the highest POLAR4 quintile, the proportion of joint honours graduates was substantially higher at the Russell Group than at Post-92 universities. Furthermore, in any quintile, there were proportionately more joint honours graduates from the Russell Group, compared with single honours graduates, and increasingly so the higher the quintile. Research limitations/implications This study focused on joint honours degrees in the UK where the two or three principal subjects fall into different Joint Academic Coding System (JACS) subject areas, i.e. the two or three subjects are necessarily diverse rather than academically cognate. This excluded the class of joint honours degrees where the principal subjects lie within the same JACS subject area, i.e. they may be closer academically, although still taught by different academic teams. However, the overall proportion of joint honours graduates identified using the classification was in line with the UCAS (2017) data on national rates of combined studies acceptances. Practical implications All Russell Group graduates, irrespective of their POLAR4 quintile, were far more likely to be in a highly skilled destination than single or joint honours graduates of Post-92 universities. Even the lowest quintile graduates of the Russell Group had greater rates of highly skilled destination than the highest quintile from Post-92 universities, for both single and joint honours graduates. This demonstrated the positive impact that graduating from the Russell Group confers on both single and joint honours graduates. Social implications This study could not explain the much smaller gap in the highly skilled destinations between single honours and joint honours graduates found in the Russell Group, compared with the Post-92. Why do a higher proportion of joint honours graduates hail form the upper POLAR4 quintiles, the Russell Group joint honours graduates were more disproportionately from the upper POLAR4 quintiles and the joint honours upper POLAR4 quintiles represented such a larger proportion of the Russell Group overall undergraduate population? Other student characteristics such as tariff on entry, subjects studied, gender, age and ethnicity might all contribute to this finding. Originality/value This study demonstrated that, averaged across all universities in the UK, there was a trend for both single honours and joint honours graduates from higher participation POLAR4 quintiles to be more likely to be in a highly skilled destination, i.e. the more educationally advantaged, were more likely to be in a highly skilled destination, as a proportion of the total from each honours type. This accorded with HESA (2018b) data, but expanded those findings to include direct consideration of joint honours graduates.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 86%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Proportion Of Graduates By Honours Type In the Uk Between 20mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Educational advantage and employability of UK university graduates

Pigden

Moore

2019

HESWBL

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Adult higher education as both an ‘opportunity’ and a ‘trap’: student perceptions on credentialism in China

Guan

Blair

2021

Studies in Continuing Education

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Thematic analysis of the learning experience of joint honours students: their perception of teaching quality, value for money and employability

Pigden

Jegede

2019

Studies in Higher Education

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The focus of the research was students' perceptions of whether joint honours degrees represented a sound student learning experience and led to good academic and employability outcomes. In this minority mode of study for the United Kingdom, students study two academic subjects, rather than the more usual single subject. The qualitative methodology followed was a thematic analysis of self-administered questionnaire data, collected from joint honours students at four English universities in the United Kingdom. The principal results were that the students experienced difficulties in fitting into the two communities of learning for their respective subjects; in being adequately supported; in disparities in teaching, learning and assessment between their two subjects, and in a high workload. The major conclusion was that although the students perceived their learning experiences to have value by virtue of having studied two subjects, a number of issues stymied their achieving the best learning experience possible.

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Employability outcomes for university joint honours graduates

Cited by 4 publications

References 9 publications

Educational advantage and employability of UK university graduates

Educational advantage and employability of UK university graduates

Adult higher education as both an ‘opportunity’ and a ‘trap’: student perceptions on credentialism in China

Thematic analysis of the learning experience of joint honours students: their perception of teaching quality, value for money and employability

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