Oxford opens up on graduate destinations

http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=26&storycode...

Jonathan Black, Director of Careers at Oxford University and a Fellow of New College, comments:

...Exposing its Destination of Leavers from Higher Education data in such detail sets Oxford apart from most of the rest of the academy, but for Jonathan Black, director of the institution's careers service, it is the natural path to take.

The exposure has exploded a few myths about Oxbridge graduates, too, he adds.

"Without being prescriptive, directed or forming a contract, it is saying we are really open about where our students go," says Black. "We have nothing to hide - and in fact we would quite like to engage people and say: 'Well, why aren't (some of these graduates) getting employed?'"

Black argues that the move allows Oxford to give its students well-directed careers advice while helping prospective applicants with little experience of higher education to make informed choices about what to study.

"You meet lots of old members of Oxford as well as current and prospective students who say: 'Oh, but everyone goes into the City', or 'Everyone becomes a high court judge.' And you say, well, that's not really true, actually."

Black points out that the single biggest employment destination for Oxford graduates is education - "which makes people sit up a bit".

Although the development of the online tool aligns Oxford with the coalition's desire to improve the quantity and quality of student information, Black notes that this was not part of the institution's motivation.

"I think we have been ahead of what the government has wanted but in line with it," he says of the website resource, which the university began work on two years ago.

"We agree that there should be more transparency, but I'm not sure about some elements of the KIS - partly because people need to read it with a health warning."

He believes that Oxford's model gives students a more accurate picture than the data provided by the KIS. The difference is that the ancient university's approach facilitates detailed, easily viewed comparisons between courses, subjects and colleges, whereas the KIS is a fixed template that will display an isolated set of data on a particular course...