AN EXPLORATION OF EMPLOYMENT OUTCOMES AND CONTRIBUTING FACTORS FOR JOINT HONOURS GRADUATES IN THE UNITED KINGDOM

The outputs presented for PhD by Published Works focussed on joint honours degree students, or recent joint honours graduates, in the UK. The works addressed two areas: the learning experience of joint honours students, and the relationship between this type of degree and graduate employment.

Different methodological approaches were taken in the published works, applying both quantitative and qualitative methods. The research considered joint honours degrees and students from different perspectives, and provided an enhanced understanding of, and reflection upon, the advantages and disadvantages of joint honours degrees.

Pigden (2016) and Pigden and Jegede (2016) provided a critique of the existing literature around joint honours degrees, and in so doing established where there were gaps in the field of study, for example around employment data for joint honours graduates.

Pigden and Jegede (2016) also gave a reflective account of the strengths and weaknesses of joint honours degrees, from the perspective of the authors’ own academic experience leading joint honours degrees. The themes identified in this reflection, such as the employability of joint honours graduates and the organisation of their courses, were researched further in the later papers.

Pigden and Jegede (2018) utilised a quantitative, descriptive analysis of the closed questions within the authors’ survey of 887 joint honours students studying at four UK universities, while Pigden and Jegede (2019) was based on a qualitative, thematic analysis of the open-ended, free text questions within this survey. These two papers provided insights around the learning experience of the students, and the identification of common themes was possible, such as sense of belonging, communication between the subjects and workload.

The remaining four papers, Pigden and Moore (2017, 2018, 2019a, 2019b), adopted a descriptive, analytical treatment of the Destination of Leavers from Higher Education (DLHE) survey, from which patterns and relationships were found that could be generalised to the national population of joint honours graduates.

While these four papers did not initially aim to explore the relationship between educational advantage and higher education, the research objectives evolved in this direction, when Pigden and Moore (2018) identified differences in employment outcomes between the joint honours graduates of the Russell Group and Post-92 universities. The research also established substantial differences in the distribution and characteristics of joint honours students studying at the Russell Group and Post-92 universities, with most joint honours students studying at the Russell Group and hailing from an educationally advantaged background.

The research fed back into the authors’ academic practice and informed their choices, decisions, and leadership around student recruitment, learning experiences and employment outcomes, for joint honours students. Through international publication and conference dissemination of the research findings, broader impact was achieved than just within the author’s own institution. The research precipitated deep thought and challenge around the nature of the UK higher education sector, including the differences between the Russell Group and Post-92 universities, the students who generally study in each of these distinctive groups of institutions, and their experiences and outcomes.