Wordle Of The Week - Clearing

This is the first of a series we're going to try, which we expect to last for as long as we keep remembering to do it.

We're going to take press coverage of HE news stories and build word pictures of them, using the excellent Wordle.net, to delight and entertain our readers. And us, mainly.

This week, news coverage of Clearing over the last week - summarising 12,300 words written in the broadsheet press on the subject. Click on the image to get a larger version, and please let us know what you think.


This image was generated using wordle.net from news articles posted on the Guardian, Independent, Times and Telegraph web sites.

HECSU on Vitae

Just a quick link to a piece I wrote recently for Vitae for their "Researcher Careers and the Recession" series of guest articles.

It's a PhD-focused follow-up to our widely-read post on the long-term outlook for first degree graduates.

Students and networking

BBC reporting of the new Unite student survey has examined the finding that

60% of graduates thought university contacts were as important as a degree for getting jobs

In fact, the only surprise is that it's only 60%. Networking is extremely important as part of a job search strategy. DLHE data constantly finds that networking and personal contacts are one the most common ways for graduates to find their first job (21.7% of employed graduates from 2007/8 who were not returning to a previous employer - only recruitment agencies were more popular, at 22.5%).

Networking pays off. Make sure your or your students talk to as many people as they can, especially in a tight job market.

PG enrolment trends

I've been on holiday. Sorry about that.

Anyway, just a quick one today - it's slightly old in that this is something we did last year and it ended up in the Economist, but it deserves some currency on this blog.

It's an analysis of the rate of PG enrolments at UK universities for graduates leaving their first degree compared with their unemployment rate.



In short, as graduate unemployment goes up - which it will continue to do - so does PG enrolment. This graph shows that the relationship has been true for 30 years and there is no reason for us to believe this will change.