Destinations of graduates from Northern Ireland

• Summary
• Introduction
• Destinations of NI graduates
• Geographical location of destination
• Employment patterns of NI graduates
• Public sector
• Graduate earnings
• Northern Ireland's 'brain drain'?
• Student debt and its impact on NI graduate career choices
• References

Summary

This article provides an overview of the destinations of graduates from Northern Ireland (NI) institutions six months and four years after graduation. Highlights include:

• 44% of NI graduates from the 1999 cohort were working in non-gradfiuate occupations immediately after graduation. Four years later, this stood at 17%.
• Graduates working in NI are more likely than their non-graduate counterparts to be working in the public sector, rather than in the private sector.
• The province’s graduates earn around 70% more than non-graduates.
• Although NI has one of the highest graduate retention rates in the UK, political and educational leaders have expressed concern at what they see as a ‘brain drain’ of talent. Various initiatives have been developed in response.
• 79% of NI graduates with repayable debt said that their debt had not affected their options after university.

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Introduction

In December 2005, an analysis of Labour Force Survey (LFS) data by Northern Ireland’s (NI) Department for Enterprise, Trade and Investment (DETINI) revealed that graduates represented 14.8% of the province’s working-age population as of spring 2005 [1]. This same analysis also revealed that the number of graduates of working-age in Northern Ireland almost doubled from 83,000 in 1995 to 155,000 in 2005 and around 90% of graduates working in NI were in employment throughout the ten-year period 1995-2005, compared with 64.5% of non-graduates. This article gives an overview of the early destinations of NI graduates six months and four years after graduation, focusing upon employment destinations, earnings and geographical location of destinations. For clarity, the term ‘NI graduates’ refers to NI-domiciled graduates from NI higher education institutions (HEIs).

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Destinations of NI graduates

Destinations of NI graduates are monitored by the Destination of Leavers from Higher Education (DLHE) survey, conducted annually by the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA). The DLHE survey for 2003/04 graduates shows that six months after graduation, 70% of the 5,575 NI-domiciled undergraduates attaining their qualifications at NI HEIs via full-time study (and who responded to the DLHE survey) were in employment (including 8% who were working and studying), 19% were in further study only and 5% were assumed to be unemployed [2].

A study conducted by Professors Peter Elias and Kate Purcell, meanwhile, revealed that three-quarters (74%) of the over 1,000 NI graduates from the class of 1999 went directly into employment immediately upon graduation, compared with 69% of UK graduates [3]. Despite the initially higher employment rate amongst NI graduates, their rate of assimilation into the labour market was subsequently slower. Four years after graduation, the employment rate rose to 91% for NI graduates, compared with 92% for UK graduates.

Some 11% of NI graduates in the 1999 sample indicated they were unemployed after graduating, though this had declined to approximately 2% within 18 months. The survey also found that NI graduates from the 1999 cohort were more likely than their UK peers as a whole to be in further study: more than 20% compared with 14% in the 12 months immediately following graduation.

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Geographical location of destination

According to the Elias and Purcell study, almost nine in ten (86%) NI graduates from 1999 were working in the province, 3.5% were employed in the Republic of Ireland and 2.7% had secured jobs in London and the South East at the time of the survey four years after graduation. HESA data, meanwhile, show that 91% of the 5,575 NI-domiciled undergraduates attaining qualifications through full-time study at NI HEIs in 2003/04 took up their first activity (including employment and further study) in NI, 4% went to the mainland UK and 3% were in the Republic of Ireland [2]. The province, thus, has a very high graduate retention rate.

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Employment patterns of NI graduates

A key way of analysing graduate employment patterns is via the SOC(HE) classification, a category devised by Elias and Purcell, aimed at analysing more fully the changing nature of graduate employment [4]. Brief descriptions and examples of the classifications are available in SOC(HE). Their study found that just over four in ten (44%) NI graduates from 1999 were working in non-graduate occupations immediately after graduation. Four years later, this stood at 17%. During this period, the proportion of NI graduates in traditional graduate occupations rose from 11% to 20%, from 13% to 19% for modern graduate occupations, from 14% to 22% for new graduate occupations and from 18% to 21% for niche graduate occupations [3].

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Public sector

The public sector is a significant employer of graduates working in NI. DETINI’s analysis of LFS data revealed a higher incidence of graduates working in the public rather than the private sector (53% and 47% respectively) [1]. In contrast, there was a higher preponderance of non-graduates working in the private sector (75%) rather than for the state (25%).

Elias and Purcell’s study of NI graduates also found a higher incidence of graduates in NI opting for the state, vis à vis the private sector. Chapter six of their study analysed predominantly the situation of the 1999 cohort and, as shown in Table 1, NI graduates were more likely to be in the public sector than their UK peers.

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Graduate earnings

According to HESA’s DLHE survey for 2003/04 graduates, the average salary for NI-domiciled students who were in full-time employment six months after graduation was £16,420, with a median figure of £16,000 [2]. DETINI’s analysis of LFS data shows there is a clear distinction between graduate and non-graduate remuneration levels, with graduates of working-age earning around 70% more per week than their non-graduate counterparts, as shown in Figure 1 [1]. In addition, the figures show that the graduates’ weekly earnings gender pay gap was slightly smaller than that for non-graduates: 32.6% compared with 36.6%.

Table 2 compares the earnings of graduates who gained their first degree from NI HEIs in 1999 with those who graduated elsewhere in the UK in the same year [3]. The figures show that those who graduated from NI HEIs have lower average earnings than their ‘UK elsewhere’ counterparts. Since NI graduates are much more likely to be working in their home country four years after graduation than graduates from other HEIs, and average earnings are lower in NI than elsewhere in the UK, much of the differences in earnings could be attributed to the location of employment, as opposed to ‘institutional’ effects.

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Northern Ireland's 'brain drain'?

Elias and Purcell’s study into NI graduates found that around 15% of those graduating from NI HEIs in 1999 left the province immediately upon graduation. Their research also highlighted that graduates who possessed less than ten A-level points and those with over 30 were more likely to be working outside the province, as were those graduates attaining either first class or third class degrees. HESA data, meanwhile, show that of the 2,020 NI-domiciled graduates who gained their degree via full-time study at UK institutions outside NI in 2003/04, 36% returned to the province six months following graduation, 55% remained elsewhere in the UK and 4% migrated to the Republic of Ireland.

Although NI has the highest graduates’ retention rates in the UK, the NI’s education and political leaders have expressed concern at what they see as a ‘brain drain’ of graduate talent [5]. In March 2005, for example, Sir Richard Nichols, Chancellor of the University of Ulster, said that many students leaving the province to study never return, and that Northern Ireland was ‘haemorrhaging’ thousands of talented graduates each year [6].

It is perhaps unsurprising, in light of these concerns, that campaigns aimed at retaining graduate talent have been prominent. Back in November 2000, for example, the Back to Your Future campaign was launched in a bid to attract ICT and Electronics professionals back to Northern Ireland [7]. In December of that year, as part of this campaign, a number of exhibitions promoting opportunities available in NI were set up at the region’s ports and seaports in a bid to target students, graduates and professionals returning for the Christmas holidays [8].

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Student debt and its impact on NI graduate career choices

Elias and Purcell’s study of NI graduates argued that both incidence and levels of repayable debt were lower among NI graduates when compared with the overall UK sample. Their analysis revealed that two-thirds (66.8%) of NI graduates from 1999 purported to have repayable debt upon graduation compared with 77% for the overall UK sample. The mean total amount of repayable debt for NI graduates from 1999 was estimated at £4,430, with a median of £3,607. For UK graduates, the figures were £5,910 and £5,000 respectively. There was, however, a lower preponderance of NI graduates repaying their debts in full compared with the UK cohort: 11% versus 17% respectively.

Overall, some 79% of NI graduates with repayable debt said that debt had not affected their options after university. Of those who were affected by debt, around two-thirds indicated they would have liked to have undertaken postgraduate study.

References

1 Graduates in the NI labour market, Statistics Research Branch, DETINI, 2 December 2005.

2 Destinations of leavers from higher education institutions: Northern Ireland 2003/04, Department for Employment and Learning Statistical Bulletin, 12 August 2005.

3 Northern Ireland’s Graduates: the classes of ’95 and ’99, Kate Purcell, Peter Elias, Rhys Davies and Nick Wilton, October 2005.

4 SOC (HE): A classification of occupations for studying the graduate labour market, P Elias and K Purcell, March 2004.

5. Graduate Market Trends, Spring 2005.

6 Student cap ‘causing brain drain’, BBC News (Northern Ireland), 23 March 2005.

7 Back to Your Future, Department of Higher and Further Education, Training and Employment press release, 22 November 2000.

8 Drive to reverse NI brain drain, BBC News (Northern Ireland), 29 December 2000.

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