Abigail McKnight

Graduate Employability: Policy and Performance in Higher Education in the UK

The UK government is introducing new sets of indicators designed to measure the performance of universities. A first wave of indicators was published in December 1999. A performance indicator based on graduate employment outcomes will follow. This paper proposes a method for developing employment-related performance indicators based on the analysis of data on the first destinations of a full cohort of leavers from pre-1992 universities in the United Kingdom. We analyse the determinants of graduate first destinations and suggest a method for the construction of university performance indicators. We also discuss limitations of league tables based on university performance indicators.

Why is There a Graduate Earnings Premium for Students from Independent Schools

We examine the determinants of occupational earnings of UK 1993 graduates and focus on the influence of the type of school the graduate attended prior to university entrance. For data reasons, we restrict attention to graduates who attended school in England. We estimate that, on average, a male (female) graduate who attended an Independent school receives an earnings premium of 3.1 per cent (3.4 per cent) over and above the earnings of a graduate who attended an LEA school, ceteris paribus. We also find considerable variation across different Independent schools in the size of the graduate earnings premium, especially for males, and show that in the case of males the premium increases with the level of school fees, but is not statistically related to measures of school–level average academic performance.

Graduates and graduate labour markets in the UK and Italy

Education, and not least higher education, has been at the forefront of public policy discussion and government policy making in the UK in recent years. A large number of educational reforms have already been implemented and others are pending. Similarly, in Italy significant reform packages have been proposed. In the context of the ongoing higher education debates in these two countries, this chapter addresses a number of empirical questions pertaining to the UK and Italy. When relevant to policy discussions, and when the data permit, we draw conclusions about similarities and differences between the two cases.

Accounting for Cross-Country Differences in Wealth Inequality

This paper adopts a counterfactual decomposition analysis to analyse cross-country differences in the size of household wealth and levels of household wealth inequality. The findings of the paper suggest that the biggest share of cross-country differences is not due to differences in the distribution of household demographic and economic characteristics but rather reflect strong unobserved country effects.

Double Trouble: A review of the relationship between UK poverty and economic inequality

The link between inequality and poverty has been highlighted by a number of international organisations, which have outlined a series of policy recommendations supporting the view that high levels of inequality need to be tackled even if the central objective is to reduce poverty. This report makes clear there is a positive correlation between income inequality and relative income poverty in the UK. The strength of this connection depends on which measure of inequality is used and this report makes no claim about causation – but the central conclusion is clear. We can no longer treat poverty and economic inequality as separate problems which can be tackled in isolation. They are instead closely linked and must be tackled together.