Forty Years on: Long-Term Change in the First Destinations of Graduates

This article is about changes in the employment of graduates over the four decades since data on their first destinations was first published in the early 1960s. It aims to identify the main changes and their implications. The data used are drawn from questionnaire surveys with very high response rates (over 80 per cent). The main finding is that most new graduates found employment within the education system in the early 1960s, whereas 40 years later only a minority do so. This has implications for how well higher education prepares students for their next steps after graduation, the distinction between subject-centred and student-centred higher education and the espoused goals of universities.