Graduate employment rates a cause for concern

There are some universities where twice as many students as the national average do not find jobs after graduation, according to the latest employment statistics.

Just over 5% of last year's graduates did not have jobs six months after they finished their degree, according to survey of 178,460 for the Higher Education Statistic Agency.

But in some universities, the unemployment figure is double that.

Of the 1,110 students surveyed at London Guildhall University, nearly 11% still had not found jobs, which is unusual given that the university is based in the City, one of England's wealthiest areas.

Although the university chose not to comment, it does have high numbers of ethnic minority students, who are still less likely to get a job than their white counterparts. The university also offers a large number of art and design courses.

It could be that Guildhall and the other institutions with high unemployment rates are failing their students, either in their training or in their links with employers, according to Professor Peter Elias, a specialist in graduate employment at Warwick University.

But he said there are several other possible explanations.

Students at Guildhall could, in theory, be more employable than they would have been after graduating from any other institution. But if students have low ability at intake, few jobs are available locally, or if students wait longer than six months before looking for jobs, a university will not score well.

HESA's annual survey of graduate employment asks universities to record how many students have jobs six months after they finish their degrees. Because the statistics are compiled by university career services, it can mean that the most honest institutions appear to perform badly.

Despite those concerns, Professor Elias said that where universities have twice the average percentage of unemployed graduates, there are questions to be answered.

Over 10% of students from the University of Wolverhampton are listed as 'presumed unemployed' which is almost exactly double the national average.

The manager of the university's careers development service, Peter Smart, agreed that there is room for improvement but stressed that there has been a year by year improvement at his institution.

The University of Salford refused to accept that the unemployment rate listed in the national statistics, 9.04%, is anything to worry about.

"The University of Salford continues to have an excellent graduate employment rate. The nature of courses such as music, media and performance mean that some graduates may take longer than six months to find work in these notoriously seasonal and competitive areas of work," a spokesperson said.