Woodfield, Ruth (2011) Age and first destination employment from UK universities: are mature students disadvantaged? Studies in Higher Education, 36 (4). pp. 409-425. ISSN 0307-5079

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Abstract

This article analyses a recent cohort (2006) of UK graduates, and explores the previously neglected relationship between age and post-degree employment. Much work on mature students assumes their overall experience to be one of disadvantage relative to traditional-age graduates, and this includes employability research. Here, mature students are demonstrated to be advantaged in the graduate labour market through analysis of a wide range of variables and employment success measures, utilised to produce a detailed set of findings that augment previous understanding. Mature graduates, regardless of whether they studied part- or full-time, secured paid work, graduate-level work, and a higher salary more frequently. Key mediating factors in their success include being a woman science student and having a history of previous employment with their post- degree employer. The relative employment success of mature students could not, however, be explained simply as a result of them already being in pre-degree graduate-level jobs.

Item Type:	Article
Schools and Departments:	School of Law, Politics and Sociology > Sociology
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HM Sociology L Education
Depositing User:	Ruth Woodfield
Date Deposited:	06 Feb 2012 20:33
Last Modified:	07 Mar 2017 07:27
URI:	http://srodev.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/26532

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