Choosing a university petition

Marcon

Walter_Jones said:

Emmia said:

How is this information collected - I didn't tell my uni what job I do or how much I earn, and I suspect the data would be fairly unreliable. 

The last contact I had with the Uni where I did my undergraduate was a call to them explaining that as someone who had graduated in the previous 2 years I wasn't in a position to give them wads of cash, donate regularly via direct debit or anything else of that sort... And could they stop writing and calling with these requests.

Surely it would be in the student loan repayments?

How would that account for people working part time? on maternity/paternity leave? being paid a non-taxable stipend...etc etc

Walter_Jones

Marcon said:

Walter_Jones said:

Emmia said:

How is this information collected - I didn't tell my uni what job I do or how much I earn, and I suspect the data would be fairly unreliable. 

The last contact I had with the Uni where I did my undergraduate was a call to them explaining that as someone who had graduated in the previous 2 years I wasn't in a position to give them wads of cash, donate regularly via direct debit or anything else of that sort... And could they stop writing and calling with these requests.

Surely it would be in the student loan repayments?

How would that account for people working part time? on maternity/paternity leave? being paid a non-taxable stipend...etc etc

Just because the information would not be perfect it would still an indication

Savvy_Sue

I think you're anticipating a more joined up system than we in fact have. 

I'm not sure the SL system really knows or cares where and what people study, their main concerns are how much was borrowed, and how much can should be repaid afterwards. They certainly don't care where people are working: just what they're earning. So the answers would be skewed by all those students who study Chemistry and are now working in a completely different field, for example. 

The universities themselves won't have the information, because although they ask their graduates what they're doing and how much they're earning, I'm not sure that many students would bother reporting this after 10 years - and by that time some students will have repaid their student loans (granted not many, but some) so you can't get it that way. 

Universities DO try to give information to potential students about 'outcomes', but that's more the % who are actually working.

At 18, I'm not sure how many young people would dig into the information you're asking for anyway. Mine all had a blithe belief that they'd be all right, regardless - although to be fair they did all choose their universities because they thought they'd get the 'best' degree for their chosen subject, and then got the results they needed. They also liked the feel of the place.

And actually, that brings us back to the problem that even if you can identify the 'best' university for future earning power, that doesn't mean you'll get into it. 

Linton

After say 5 years of employment what one studied at which university is pretty irrelevent.  The jobs that pay the best money could well be based more on relevent experience and ability to manage and work with people than technical skills.

Another factor is that some subjects like maths have high entrance requirements.  People who get a maths degree may subsequently receive a higher income than someone who did a general degree but perhaps they would have succeeded in their careers no matter what degree they took.

Emmia

Walter_Jones said:

Emmia said:

How is this information collected - I didn't tell my uni what job I do or how much I earn, and I suspect the data would be fairly unreliable. 

The last contact I had with the Uni where I did my undergraduate was a call to them explaining that as someone who had graduated in the previous 2 years I wasn't in a position to give them wads of cash, donate regularly via direct debit or anything else of that sort... And could they stop writing and calling with these requests.

Surely it would be in the student loan repayments?

saker75 said:

The Graduate Outcomes data for all HEIs is available but is of limited value. There are, as said above, too many variables in the graduate labour market. What is more interesting is the learning gain - the difference between academic grades on entering and leaving the institution. 

That is why I think they should do this - to get better information.

The payments might tell you the employer, but not the job...

And if no loan was taken, it would tell you nothing.

Jude57

Emmia said:

Walter_Jones said:

Emmia said:

How is this information collected - I didn't tell my uni what job I do or how much I earn, and I suspect the data would be fairly unreliable. 

The last contact I had with the Uni where I did my undergraduate was a call to them explaining that as someone who had graduated in the previous 2 years I wasn't in a position to give them wads of cash, donate regularly via direct debit or anything else of that sort... And could they stop writing and calling with these requests.

Surely it would be in the student loan repayments?

saker75 said:

The Graduate Outcomes data for all HEIs is available but is of limited value. There are, as said above, too many variables in the graduate labour market. What is more interesting is the learning gain - the difference between academic grades on entering and leaving the institution. 

That is why I think they should do this - to get better information.

The payments might tell you the employer, but not the job...

And if no loan was taken, it would tell you nothing.

Exactly this. My niece and nephew both gained First Class Honours degrees, he at a red brick university, she at a less prestigious university. He had a 22 year career as a Royal Navy officer behind him when he attended university and his subsequent career in the oil and gas sector was very successful and well paid but according to him, his degree wasn't what got him his jobs, it was his Royal Navy engineering experience. He funded his own degree, supported by his wife whose education he had funded and supported some years earlier. My niece was also a mature student and chose a degree in a health field, partially funded by an NHS bursary, partially by an inheritance from her late father and partially by working part-time. She now works within a clinical setting in the NHS and earns a decent but not exceptional, salary. Neither had student loans, both were in their 40's when they undertook their degrees and therefore weren't typical of the student population at their universities but neither were they isolated cases. Neither were seeking wild nightlife from their chosen universities, indeed my nephew joked that he knew more about the nightlife in his city than anyone else on his course! 

I don't see how the survey proposed by the OP could yield valid, useful data. Not everyone who studies has a student loan and, certainly in the case of 'glamorous' subjects like law and medicine and those seen as 'easy' like media studies, many who obtain those degrees go into entirely unrelated fields because competition for jobs in their degree field is so fierce that employers really can be very choosy. My last employer was so impressed by one outstanding candidate that they paid off his student loan as part of a 'golden handcuffs' deal to secure him. I'm led to believe that while this isn't common practice, it happens often enough to be an accepted part of recruitment in some fields.

Walter_Jones

Savvy_Sue said:

And actually, that brings us back to the problem that even if you can identify the 'best' university for future earning power, that doesn't mean you'll get into it. 

How is that a problem? If you find out that you can't get into any courses that interest you and provide a positive ROI - you look for a job and are better off.

Annisele

Birkbeck likes to advertise the earnings of its graduates. But it also has a very unusual student population - given that the majority of its teaching is in the evening, it attracts a lot of undergraduates who are already working full time (including many who already have a degree in an unrelated subject). Funnily enough when they graduate they tend to earn more than people without work experience!

Marcon

Walter_Jones said:

Marcon said:

Walter_Jones said:

Emmia said:

How is this information collected - I didn't tell my uni what job I do or how much I earn, and I suspect the data would be fairly unreliable. 

The last contact I had with the Uni where I did my undergraduate was a call to them explaining that as someone who had graduated in the previous 2 years I wasn't in a position to give them wads of cash, donate regularly via direct debit or anything else of that sort... And could they stop writing and calling with these requests.

Surely it would be in the student loan repayments?

How would that account for people working part time? on maternity/paternity leave? being paid a non-taxable stipend...etc etc

Just because the information would not be perfect it would still an indication

Or it might just be an indication of the fact that particular universities accept weaker students with poorer grades...

sheramber

One of my son/t friends did a ffench degree but is working as an accountant.