Employment rates
Some universities run great courses, but six months after graduation, a third of the students are either unemployed or doing the kind of McJob they could have got before they went to university.
On the other hand, when a department does things like offer sandwich courses or projects with local businesses, it usually helps the move into jobdom. Some departments have such a high reputation and such good relationships with business and industry that the students get their first pay cheque almost as soon as the ink's dry on the degree.
If the only reason you want to go to university is to have a high-flying career, the employment rate is critical. Even if the big career picture is anywhere in the frame, it's important.
Employment rates are often broken down into destinations, listing, for example, how many graduates have a job, how many have gone on to do more studying, how many have left the country and so on — sometimes even detailing how many have jobs as opposed to real careers (although that's a toughie to measure).
The employment rate doesn't happen by accident or even simply by the university's reputation. Universities all run careers offices, but that name represents a variety spanning from a little old lady who thinks 'tinker, tailor, soldier, sailor' constitutes an exhaustive list of careers options to vast banks of advisers armed with databases, websites, psychometric tests, interview practice and, no doubt, brown envelopes featuring bosses in compromising positions that will get released to the press if they don't play ball.
Particularly if your chosen degree is not naturally vocational, the help you get finding a career may prove critical. (Careers offices, which help students into employment after graduation, should not be confused with 'jobshops', which help students get part-time or temp work.)
Last updated on: 24 April 2008