This blog was kindly contributed by Dr Kostas Kollydas and Professor Anne Green, City-REDI, Birmingham Business School, University of Birmingham (@CityREDI).
In their recent study “The gainers and losers from the United Kingdom’s university-related migration: A subregional analysis of Graduate Outcomes Survey data”, Professor Tony Champion, Professor Anne Green, and Dr Kostas Kollydas offer an insightful analysis of higher education-related migration within the UK, utilising Graduate Outcomes Survey data from the academic years 2017/2018 and 2018/2019.
This research provides a comprehensive examination of young adults’ migration paths from their homes to universities and subsequently to their initial workplaces 15 months after graduation, and it sheds light on the impact of such migration on subregional disparities. It is well-established that graduates play a pivotal role in bolstering local economies through their skills, productivity, and contribution to economic growth – this accentuates the significance of the study’s findings.
The study’s innovative approach involves coding address data from the Graduate Outcomes Survey across 53 UK subregions, allowing for detailed tracking of individuals living in the UK who embarked on undergraduate courses by the age of 20. This methodology enables a nuanced understanding of higher education-related migration patterns and their implications at a subregional level. Hence, it provides a level of spatial detail beyond traditional regional analyses.
The study also develops a classification system for subregions, which are sorted by their net gains or losses in student/graduate populations. It further divides these movements into eight specific migration pathways to analyse the impacts both quantitatively and qualitatively. Specifically, qualitative impacts are evaluated based on educational qualifications of graduates before university and their occupational status 15 months after graduation.
