1 Kirsty Finn, Lancaster UniversityRegional stickiness and relative successes: Student and graduate (im)mobilities and planning for the future Kirsty Finn, Lancaster University AGCAS Research Conference 2017 3rd July, Manchester Metropolitan Business School
2 A recent IFS study found huge variance in graduate earnings depending on choice of subject and institution, as well as background, and there is evidence that suggests that some graduates are not in jobs most suitable to their skills. The Destinations of Leavers from Higher Education longitudinal survey found that one in five employed graduates were not working in a professional or managerial role three and a half years after graduation. Furthermore, the OECD has found that around 7% of graduates are leaving higher education with a low level of basic skills. We need to ensure the full benefits of higher education are available to all those who make this investment. With better information, students will be able to make informed choices about their higher education options and their future careers. (Success as a Knowledge Economy: Teaching Excellence, Social Mobility and Student Choice, 2016: 12)
3 Outline Regionality and mobility of students and graduates in the UKMethodology for the two studies – Expectation and Everyday Relationships: Young Women Going to University (PhD) and SRHE-funded student Everyday Student Mobilities (ESM) project Three cases: Tanya & Ashley (PhD); Timothy (ESM) Discussion and conclusion.
4 Regional Stickiness Stickiness: Smart (2007) relationships with people and connections to things/moments that are hard to shake free from at an emotional level and their existence continue to influence our thoughts, practices and decision-making. Sticky students Reay, David and Ball (2005): ‘saturated with localism’ (London) Patiniotis and Holdsworth (2005): ‘Living at home and maintaining ties with the local community is a way of minimising risk’ (Merseyside) Christie (2007): ‘spatial immobilities’ (Edinburgh) Finn (2015): ‘disentangling family relationships’ (North West) Bathmaker, Ingram, Abrahams, Hoare, Waller and Bradley (2016): working-class localism (Bath/Bristol) Pokorny, Holley and Kane (2016): ‘stayeducation’
5 Regional Stickiness Sticky graduatesFinancial downturn of 2008; ‘Boomeranging’; Local labour markets and parental safety nets Stone, Berrington and Falkingham (2014): women in HE ‘boomeranging’ back home Sage, Evandrou and Falkingham (2013): Southampton graduates and the ‘parental safety net’ Burke (2015): labour market knowledge and strategizing Fiona Christie (2016): mobility capital and confidence Charlie Ball for HECSU (2015) – Regional Loyals; Regional Returners; Regional Stayers; Regional Incomers.
6 Sticky NW Over half (58.9%) of graduates from 2012/13 employed in the NW region were Loyals. Nursing was the most popular profession for this group, but there were significant numbers of teachers, doctors, social workers, pharmacists, midwives, youth workers, marketing and PR professionals, business, HR and finance professionals, legal workers and IT professionals in the group. A fifth (20.3%)of graduates working in the North West were Returners, who were both the most likely group to be from a background of highest participation in HE, but also the most likely to be in a non-professional job six months after graduation, albeit often in office work. Returners were also the most likely group in the region to have a job in the law, and as likely as the Incomers to be in management. Other important roles for this group included medicine, pharmacy, welfare professions, finance, accountancy, HR and marketing. Two thirds (67.6%) of Stayers were in professional and managerial employment six months after graduation, and were the most likely group to be in marketing or PR professions. Of the Incomers, 80.8% had professional and managerial roles, and were the most likely group to be working in STEM, the finance industry or the arts.
7 Two studies (1) PhD ( ) University of Manchester Expectation and Everyday Relationships: Young Women Going to University ~ QLR w/ 24 women from NW town (“Millthorne”), interviewed (x3) over 15 months at HEIs around the UK. ( ) Teesside University Beyond Transition: Understanding Intimacy Post-graduation ~ 4th interview w/ 10 women 2-3 years after graduation (2) SRHE-funded ( ) Lancaster University Everyday Student Mobilities: Exploring the relationship between wellbeing, inclusion and sustainability ~ Go-along and walking interviews w/ 21 ‘students who commute’ in North West England. Including part and full-time, mature and young, undergraduate and postgraduate students.
8 Tanya And [her friend] would say ‘but you’ve done your degree’ and, because she’s still the same, she’s doe her degree in fashion and she’s still pursuing that, she said, ‘maybe just give it a bit longer and send your CV out’. But I sent it out and you know I was just getting rejection after rejection. It’s kind of the longer that I left it, not being in sort of the industry as it were, I knew that it was going to be harder to get back in. And I just kept thinking , ‘I’m never going to do this, And it would just be more… because I had so wanted to. When I got [the job in social care] my other mate was like, ‘I can’t believe you haven’t doe it before.’ she said you’ve been around care all your life, why did you not think of it sooner? It took her to kind of spell it out and for me to say, ‘ooh I’ve made a mistake, I should've done this years ago.’ (Interview 4) Being in Millthorne, well it’s not the end of the world and I can do a job that I’ll be really god at without thinking oh, I’ve got to go to London or America to earn good money or have a career, or I’ve got to work as a volunteer and never earn anything for years. You know, I did a degree and I’m like, I want to start seeing that, you know. In like, a place to live and a regular wage.
9 Ashley You know, I’ve done that, that living away thing and it was fun and good and I did like it. But I’ve had that experience and, well, I know now that I’d rather have a nice home here, see family and travel out to work than do it the other way around. […] I kind of feel that, to an extent but it’s not a big deal, that [her boyfriend] has also, you know, been here and I’ve been away and I have to, like, recognise that. (Interview 4) I don’t feel like I’m anything special, I work hard like the next person. I think I just got lucky really. I did feel bad though; at one stage I had two job offers on the table and I have friends who can’t even get past the application stage. It’s not fair…I know it’s hard out there. I think with my sister, I think that’s the problem, because I think she thinks I sort of leap-frogged her … I think she feels it should be her and yes, I feel guilty that things are taking so long for her and I worry she isn’t settled but I do work hard for what I have. (Interview 4)
10 Timothy Originally I wanted to go to Oxford but that didn’t work out. I did quite badly in my entrance exam and my AS grades weren’t up to scratch. I was very disappointed. It got to me quite badly. Like that’s the thing I was going for, the whole time. It was hard to come back from that. I don’t know that I would have coped too well living away from home but being at Oxford, well that would have made up for that. For like being homesick or missing family or whatever. But say I hadn’t got into Lancaster and had to go for my second choice – which was York – then, I don’t know. That would have been hard. Oxford is just Oxford, isn’t it. T: I try not to think about much when I’m travelling. Particularly at the moment because my mind can drift, like, to what’s next. What I’m doing after [graduation]. K: Why, is that stressful for you? T: Yes, it is really. Like, since I realised I’m not doing a Masters degree now. My grades aren’t up to it. I just don’t know what is next for me, hmmm [visibly anxious]. I have tried to find a Masters degree elsewhere, but I don’t want to move away really. I can’t think about it. I dread it. It’s mostly having like familiarity, especially the people, the dogs. I’m not sure if I want to do a doctorate, yet. A masters would help me to decide. If I come out of Lancaster with a 2:2 – which looks about right by now, I didn’t do well in my exams last year – but if I could get a first in a masters then I could get ahead again.
11 T: I thought of [university] purely as, go in, get a degree and get out. [I was] not concerned with fuzzy bits around the edges. But the thing that has scuppered me is the weighting of the exams; this has been hard for me. [In the] First year it was 60/40, and that didn’t count [towards to final degree grade] but second year was 80/20 and I don’t perform well during exams. I was quite ill last year and this has held me back. I scraped passes, so I wasn’t allowed to resit. If I’d have failed I could’ve re-sat the papers. It’s unfair really. […] Yes, it is hard, you know. We are so close [as a family] but then, also, my parents have doctorates, both of my brothers are studying for theirs, and my sister, well who knows; she changes her mind all the time. But I, it’s the first time that I really feel quite unsure about what’s next and the thought of leaving home, especially for a masters at a second rate university. Well I dread it to be honest.
12 Concluding discussionSo, what do these accounts tell us about the ways students and graduates orient themselves towards possible futures? What kinds of resources do they need when thinking about their next steps after completing university? How do they make the ‘informed choices’ that are referenced in policy literature? (informed by what/whom?) What do we need to know about them to help us offer the best and most appropriate guidance? How can we build broader concepts of ‘success’ and ‘mobility’ that allow graduates to be seen as ‘whole persons’ not simply rational actors?