English universities to face fines over student dropout and graduate employment rates

Sanctions could be imposed on English universities from this week as the Office for Students (OfS) brings in graduate employment and degree targets.

These thresholds require that 60% of students go into further study, professional work, or other “positive outcomes” within 15 months of graduating.

Universities should also not have more than one in five students dropping out before finishing their degree, and three in four students should be passing their degree.

This provides a “clear incentive for universities and colleges to take credible action to improve the outcomes of courses,” explained Susan Lapworth, the chief executive of the OfS.

Many students choose higher education to improve their career prospects, and so “it’s right that [the OfS are] prepared to tackle courses with low numbers of students going into professional work”.

These measures also take other outcomes such as further study or graduates building their own businesses into account.

However, university leaders have challenged the move, arguing that rates of graduate employment can be influenced by economic forces beyond their control.

They also pointed out that initial careers in certain subject areas, such as creative arts, are more difficult and so may skew statistics.

“The data is not perfect and can only ever capture aspects of student success,” a spokesperson for the Universities UK group added.

“Good outcomes need to be considered in the context of students’ aspirations and the circumstances of their studies.”

Universities UK also emphasised the importance of graduates finding “meaningful and satisfying” careers, rather than basing professional success solely on income.

This comes as the proportion of students from 2019/20 finding full-time employment within 15 months of graduating dropped compared to the 2017/18 cohort, the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) reports.

Although this can somewhat be explained by the pandemic, this decrease was also visible for 2018/19 graduates before the pandemic began.

The OfS’s new measures mean 3% of full-time undergraduates are studying at universities below the continuation of course measure, while 2.5% are on courses that sit below the employment target.

Warwick seems unlikely to face sanctions, with figures consistently above the OfS’s targets.

The proportion of Warwick students dropping out before completing their course is 2.8%, 92.2% pass their degree, and 93% are in work or further study within 15 months of graduating.