Black graduates are less likely to be satisfied with their career

A new report by the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) finds that Black graduates are less likely to report being satisfied with their career.  Its research found that Black graduates who enter higher education aged 25 or under are 2.6 percentage points less likely to report being satisfied with their career relative to White graduates in the same age group. For older graduates, the difference was even greater at approximately 9 percentage points.

Following debate on the wider benefits of higher education beyond earnings, HESA researchers studied graduates’ responses to survey questions about career satisfaction. The research looked at how graduates from different ethnic backgrounds responded to these questions and found that Black graduates tended to report a lower level of career satisfaction than White graduates.

The data come from the Longitudinal Destinations of Leavers from Higher Education (LDLHE) surveys conducted in winter 2014/15 and 2016/17, which surveyed graduates approximately three and a half years after they finished their studies (during the 2010/11 and 2012/13 academic years, respectively). This gave a sample of 111,950 UK domiciled graduates. The research controlled for a range of factors correlated with both ethnicity and career satisfaction, including socioeconomic status, subject studied, degree attainment, activities after graduation, periods of unemployment and an individual’s experience of higher education.

Black Caribbean graduates least satisfied with their career

Among young graduates (aged 25 or under at the time of starting higher education), Black Caribbean graduates were 7.9 percentage points less likely to report being satisfied with their career than White graduates before controls were applied and 2.6 percentage points less likely after controlling for other factors. Before controls, older Black African graduates (26 or over when beginning their degree) were 14.3 percentage points less likely than White graduates to express career satisfaction, falling to 9.0 percentage points after controls were applied. Younger Indian graduates and older Chinese graduates were slightly more likely than their White counterparts to be satisfied with their careers, after controlling for other factors.

The research was undertaken to provide useful background and context for Higher Education Providers and policy makers working to promote successful outcomes for graduates from all backgrounds.

Universities must do more to tackle racism

Universities must do more to tackle racism, said the University and College Union (UCU) today . Responding to the ‘‘Higher education outcomes: How career satisfaction among graduates varies by ethnicity’’ report by HESA, UCU said it showed the effects of structural racism on black graduates’ careers. The union said universities must address their own employment practices if they are serious about becoming inclusive workplaces and pointed to research that shows only 140 professional academic staff in the UK identify as black and a 26% race pay gap at Russell Group universities.

 UCU general secretary Jo Grady said: ‘This report's troubling findings are yet another illustration of how structural racism entrenches inequality throughout black people's lives. With black graduates up to 9% less likely to be satisfied with their careers than their white peers, further research is urgently needed to identify and address the systemic issues which underpin this damaging divide.

‘Universities have been quick to claim their anti-racist credentials in recent months, but they themselves are part of the problem. The race pay gap at Russell Group universities is a staggering 26% and we still have only 140 black professors employed at UK universities. UCU is ready to work with universities to tackle racism but we need real action, not just warm words, if institutions are to become truly inclusive and equitable.

‘The report also lays bare the shortcomings of graduate employment data as a proxy indicator about the quality of higher education. Many different factors, including ethnicity and socio-economic background, have a significant and lasting impact on education and employment outcomes.’

Click here to download a copy of the HESA ‘‘Higher education outcomes: How career satisfaction among graduates varies by ethnicity’’ report.

Click here to download the ‘Higher education outcomes: How career satisfaction among graduates varies by ethnicity’ Summary.

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