Finding relevance
In a recent post on this site I raised some questions about the extent to which university places should reflect national economic, social or other needs. But when it come to degree programme choices by students, there is also another dimension, one that I was reminded of when I read the recent publication by Ireland’s Higher Education Authority on the first destination of graduates after they leave higher education (What Do Graduates Do? The Class of 2013). One particular finding is interesting (page 43):
‘Of those employed in Ireland and who responded to this section of the survey, 63% of Honours Bachelor Degree graduates rated the relevance of their qualification as relevant or most relevant to their area of employment. A total of 19% rated their qualification as irrelevant/most irrelevant and 18% were unsure.’
Let us assume here that the question was understood to be about the relevance of their qualification (and not, as the above passage suggests, the relevance of the relevance). Let us assume also that the undefined term ‘relevance’ would have been understood similarly by all respondents. In that case, we are left to conclude that nearly two-thirds of students saw their degree course as being directly tied to their chosen profession, while about 20 per cent thought their studies were not connected with their employment.
This suggests on the one hand that a large number of Irish students see higher education as a vocational process, while a substantial minority do not, apparently, identify the acquisition of transferable skills or other benefits in their university studies. What strikes me here is the apparently binary nature of this assessment: my course is vocationally ‘relevant’, or it is ‘irrelevant’.
I believe in the value of vocational or professional aspects of higher education. But I also believe in the value of university studies more generally, for those who can benefit from them and are suitably qualified to learn. All university studies benefit the learner, or should do.
The value or otherwise of ‘relevance’ in higher education is one of those things we have not yet properly settled. There isn’t a straightforward answer, but there is scope for a good debate, which in turn should have some impact on how students view their studies both before they commence them and after they have entered employment. In the absence of this we shouldn’t make too many assumptions about how students, or for that matter academics, perceive relevance.
Tags: relevant degrees, vocational courses
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University Blog 
January 13, 2015 at 9:01 am
What valuable information can you possibly draw from asking the graduates such questions. Asking ‘why did you apply for that job’ would give more insight. It’s the employer these questions properly should be directed. They are in the same country at those idiotic stats where 95% of ‘X’UC are employed after 6 months. Employed at what, earning how much.
It isn’t the same thing to say the good for the university is also good for the students, not at all.
January 14, 2015 at 7:57 pm
I agree with Vincent; I find these sort of surveys quite meaningless. It is a survey of perceptions, rather than of facts.
By definition, the graduates were in their first jobs, and presumably not long in the workforce …would they know by this stage how relevant their education was? I am regular discover something that I learnt as an undergraduate that becomes useful to me now…it’s a slow process!