BMJ careers news for those with interviews soon

The BMJ collates medical news stories on its website which ought to be looked at by students with medical interviews in the near future.

http://careers.bmj.com/careers/advice/article-search.html?action=browseNews

Top 10 questions teachers are asked at job interviews

Very useful reading for anyone thinking about entering education but cn also be applied to certain other occupations. 
http://www.theguardian.com/teacher-network/teacher-blog/2014/jan/29/teacher-job-interview-questions-top-ten

free MOOCs including "So you want to be a Vet?"

The website www.coursera.org has hundreds of online courses that may be of interest.  Starting in May the University of edinburgh is runing one for potential vets  from https://www.coursera.org/course/edivet

Graphic showing career paths in Law

lawcareers.net has a nice graphic that illustrates possible career paths in law
http://www.lawcareers.net/Courses/LegalCareerPaths

Which HE course are popular this year

The THES has analysed statistics to compare university admissions from the 1996/7 cohort and the 2011/12. However, in 2002/3 there was a major reclassification exercise which led to reallocating a number of courses and a change in the way joint courses were recorded. The figures look at all full time, part time, undergraduate and post graduate courses.

Over the period the number of students has grown by 42%, media studies has grown by 360%, journalism by over 400%, sports science as a course did not exist in 1996, but since 2002/3 it has grown by 150%, travel, transport and tourism has grown by 300% since 2002/3, politics has grown by 125% since 1996, economics by 75% and psychology by 280%. Business and administrative studies has grown by 64%. However, in science subjects the growth has been much more muted; physics has grown by 26%, biology 22% and chemistry has declined by 1.3%. Engineering has grown by 21% but the majority of this growth is from overseas students. The only STEM subject to buck the trend is mathematics, which has grown by 134%.

Jurgen Enders, professor of higher education at Southampton University, noted that “Low cost/high fee fields can be attractive for universities, think of universities using their business schools as cash cows”. In addition, universities are keen to expand courses that draw in lots of foreign students (who pay much higher fees) with almost two thirds of the increase in business studies coming from overseas students. The UK is unusual in allowing universities to choose what courses to offer to meet market demand, with little central planning.

Graduate pay

A survey of 100 major employers, by High Fliers Research, says there will be a 9% rise in graduate recruitment this year, about 1,400 extra jobs. Many will go to people who have already worked for the company, either on work experience or via a placement. Average starting salaries are £29,000 a year, with investment banks averaging £45,000 and law firms £39,000. The European Commission and the supermarket chain Aldi, both offer rates of about £41,000.

 

Two-thirds of the employers surveyed had paid work-experience programmes, with more than 11,000 paid placements for first and second-year undergraduates. In all, 37% of this year's entry-level positions are going to people who have already worked with the organisations in some capacity. The largest graduate recruiter is the charity Teach First, who have 1,550 vacancies followed by PwC (1,200 vacancies) and Deloitte (1,000 vacancies).

Martin Birchall, managing director of High Fliers Research, said: "This very significant increase in graduate vacancies at Britain's top employers means the job prospects for graduates leaving university this year are the best they've been since the start of the recession seven years ago."

 

Please note that High Flyers only deal with major employers and the vast majority of graduates will not work for them. Nationally, about 1:10 graduates are believed to be out of work six months after leaving university, according to HESA. Among those who graduated in 2012, average wages were £21,000 a year for men and £19,000 for women, around a third of graduates were working in sectors that did not require a degree.

 

Drop out rates

This report summarised below shows a link between poverty and dropping out.  The more a student can convince admissions tutors that they are a serious studnet with less chance of dropping out, then they hve to be in with a better chance of securing offers.

A study, by York St John College, on dropout rates at university, has shown a clear correlation between retention rates and the proportion of students from lower socio economic backgrounds. Les Ebdon, Director of OFFA, said the research “starkly” illustrates the cost of taking too many students from poorer backgrounds because of the “significant loss of money” when a student drops out.  He noted that; “If universities were simply a business they wouldn’t do it”.

 

However, the retention rate varied amongst universities attracting a similar socio economic student base, and similar pre entry qualifications. Tessa Stone, chief executive of the Brightside education charity, said that university location, number of international students, and course quality, all made a difference in retention. In addition, she said the problem could be a vicious circle because when peers see other students dropping out it “reinforces the fact that it’s possible”. Les Ebdon said “Money is clearly quite important. The poorer you are, the less likely you are to stay on the course”. However, he added that, “A sense of belonging is critical to student success. If you feel that you don’t belong either because of class or ethnicity, you’re more likely to drop out”.

thanks to G Collins of ceslondon