What do we know about the trajectories of school leavers’ and graduates’? – comparing three European countries

Author(s):

Rita Hordosy(presenting / submitting)

Conference:

ECER 2013

Network:

23. Policy Studies and Politics of Education

Format:

Paper

Session Information

23 SES 02 D, Students' Trajectories

Paper Session

Time:

2013-09-10

15:15-16:45

Room:

GCONF - Conference Hall

Chair:

Christina Segerholm

Contribution

School leavers and graduate research programmes can give us information on the immediate or longer term outcomes of leavers of different schools, colleges and universities. A recent research report on European higher education tracking systems within and after university states that ‘the tracking of students and graduates has so far received little attention, at least at European level’ (Gaebel et al., 2012: 16). The current research addresses a similar, but wider question: what data collections are present at national level collecting information about students or graduates leaving either secondary or tertiary institutions.

The current research is a meta-research, which has an international comparative educational framework. It studies ‘the construction, interpretation, and display of statistics in quantitative social research’ to interpret the informal knowledge and procedures beyond the technicalities of statistics; this is referred to by Gephart (1988: 9) as ‘ethnostatistics’. Thus the research gives an indication of how ‘evidence based policy making’ works, setting it into a comparative context.

The current paper provides an overview of the available European research programmes within this policy area and compares three countries in detail; these are England, Finland and the Netherlands. The comparison refers to the main aim of the school leavers and graduates surveys, their financial and institutional background, the methodology used and the dissemination process.

The current paper provides information on what differences occur within Europe in relation to the set-up of the school leavers and graduates survey programmes. Whereas the Netherlands runs separate national sample surveys on leavers and graduates to cover all levels of education and to combine the data into a system-level account, in England the different educational levels have their separate, non-comparable school leavers or graduate data collections. In Finland the statistics agency collects data on all leavers from post-compulsory education, and as this is done through combining different registry datasets, they acquire data on virtually everyone (Collingwood et al., 2010, ROA, 2012, ESDS, 2009, SFA, 2012, HESA, 2002, StatisticsFinland, 2004, StatisticsFinland, 2012, Puhakka and Tuominen, 2011).

The school leavers and graduates research information is used widely; therefore the data collections have to satisfy the needs of different stakeholders involved. As national research programmes are under scrutiny, the majority of them are financed by central government, thus the main aim of the data collection has to be applicable in educational policy planning, monitoring and evaluating. Policymakers need a national level picture; they only need institutional level data for accreditation purposes. Thus, institutional leaders, planning officers and career advisors - the other important set of users - might not gain a full picture through the official national data collection on how their leavers and graduates are doing. A good example of this is the Finnish case: although the statistics agency has data on all leavers, the depth of the information seemed to be not enough. Therefore the Finnish universities have started their own research programme to gain more data on their graduates’ labour market outcomes and experiences (StatisticsFinland, 2004, Puhakka and Tuominen, 2011).

Method

This investigation is built on three subsequent phases. The cross-sectional phase discusses the present forms of the school leavers’ survey programmes in Europe using extensive documentary analysis; the case studies on England, Finland and the Netherlands are using élite interviews and further documentary data; the third phase uses school leavers research data to test the possibilities of the analysis. For the purposes of current research documentary data is collected systematically on all European Economic Area countries. The countries that have national programmes collecting data on school leavers and graduates are categorised according to whether the project is based on cross-sectional or longitudinal data and whether they use a sample or a census type of approach. The cases are chosen to represent the two types for both dimensions. The case studies are built on a minimum of 15 in-depth interviews in each of the three countries, mostly done face-to-face. Interviews are conducted with ministerial experts, institutional leaders and planning officers, career guidance experts as well as the data producers themselves. The last phase uses statistical data analysis to identify the possibilities of using one particular type of school leavers data.

Expected Outcomes

The results of these research programmes are used within several different areas: educational policy planning, institutional decision making, career guidance for current and prospective students and within social science research. The paper compares the three cases using the in-depth interview and documentary data, pointing out the main differences within their methodology and scope and what these imply for the utilisation of the school leavers and graduates survey results. The three cases are different in terms of their scope and their methodology. Whereas England has several separated leavers and graduates data collections, Finland and the Netherlands have research programmes that gather information on the educational system as a whole with regards to post-compulsory transitions. Whereas in the Netherlands and in England the research programmes are carried out through cross-sectional survey research, in Finland registry data is compiled into longitudinal accounts of leavers information. The analysis through uncovering the main similarities and differences of school leavers and graduate surveys, arrives at a European ‘best practice’ of such data collections.

References

COLLINGWOOD, A., CHESHIRE, H., NICOLAAS, G., D’SOUZA, J., ROSS, A., HALL, J., ARMSTRONG, C., PROSSER, A., GREEN, R., COLLINS, D., GRAY, M. & MCNAUGHTON NICHOLLS, C. 2010. A Review of the Longitudinal Study of Young People in England (LSYPE): Recommendations for a Second Cohort [Online]. NatCen. Available: https://www.education.gov.uk/publications/eOrderingDownload/DFE-RR048.pdf [Accessed 21/05/2012]. ESDS. 2009. Youth Cohort Study (YCS), Cohort 13, Sweeps 1 to 3. Quick Start User Guide [Online]. Essex: ESDS. Available: http://www.esds.ac.uk/doc/6024%5Cmrdoc%5Cpdf%5C6024ycs_13_s1_s2_s3_s4_quick_start_user_guide.pdf [Accessed 26/10/2011]. GAEBEL, M., HAUSCHILDT, K., MÜHLECK, K. & SMIDT, H. 2012. Tracking Learners’ and Graduates’ Progression Paths (TRACKIT) [Online]. Belgium: European University Association. Available: http://www.eua.be/trackit [Accessed 11/01/2013]. GEPHART, R. P. 1988. Ethnostatistics: Qualitative Foundations for Quantitative Research, London, SAGE Publications. HESA. 2002. Review of Destinations of Leavers from Higher Education (Early DLHE ) Survey - update following sector consultation (Ref C11018) [Online]. Higher Education Statistics Agency. Available: http://www.hesa.ac.uk/content/view/1970/128/ [Accessed 28/11/2012]. PUHAKKA, A. & TUOMINEN, V. 2011. As long as it takes five years - Master's degree graduates careers (Kunhan kuluu viisi vuotta – ylemmän korkeakoulututkinnon suorittaneiden työurat) [Online]. Tampere: Aarresaari-verkosto. [Accessed]. ROA. 2012. Schoolverlaters tussen onderwijs en arbeidsmarkt 2011 (ROA-R-2012/2) [Online]. Maastricht: Maastricht University, Researchcentrum voor Onderwijs en Arbeidsmarkt. Available: http://www.roa.unimaas.nl/pdf_publications/2012/ROA_R_2012_2.pdf [Accessed 22/10/2012]. SFA. 2012. FE Choices, Data Explained [Online]. Coventry: Skills Funding Agency. Available: http://fechoices.skillsfundingagency.bis.gov.uk/Pages/DataExplained.aspx#ld [Accessed 23/11/2012]. STATISTICSFINLAND. 2004. Use of Registers and Administrative Data Sources for Statistical Purposes. Best Practices of Statistics Finland [Online]. Helsinki: Statistics Finland. Available: http://tilastokeskus.fi/tup/julkaisut/kasikirjoja_45_en.pdf [Accessed 20/12/2012]. STATISTICSFINLAND. 2012. Transition from school to further education and work [Online]. Helsinki: Statistics Finland. Available: http://www.stat.fi/til/sijk/index_en.html [Accessed 20/12/2012].

Author Information

Rita Hordosy (presenting / submitting)

University of Birmingham

School of Education

Birmingham

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