Lessons learnt from two decades of graduate tracer research: Recommendations for the South African context
Abstract
Graduate tracer studies may be an appropriate research method for responding to various problems in the South African higher education context, including difficulties associated with higher education transformation and graduate employability. However, there is little context-relevant literature on the implementation of the various methodologies that may be used, and no assessment of the relevance of these methods for the South African context. In an attempt to synthesise graduate tracer study research, and to recommend potential models for conducting graduate tracer studies in South Africa, a systematic quantitative literature review was conducted of 23 graduate tracer studies from 13 countries, published between 1995 and 2016. The findings from this review point to three potential models for implementation in the South African context: a large-scale model, a smaller-scale model, and a mixed-method model. These recommended models may allow for the more efficient and effective implementation of graduate tracer studies across the South African context.
References
Aina, L.O. and K. Moahi. 1999. Tracer study of the Botswana library school graduates. Education for Information 17(3): 215-244.
Cable, D.A.J. 2013. The career experiences of industrial and organisational psychology graduates. New Zealand Journal of Psychology 42(1): 5-12.
Cabrera, A.F., D.J. Weerts and B.J. Zulick. 2005. Making an impact with alumni surveys. New Directions for Institutional Research (126): 5-17.
Carroll, D. 2015. Beyond graduation 2014: A report of graduates’ work and study outcomes three years after course completion. Melbourne: Graduate Careers Australia Ltd.
Cape Higher Education Consortium. 2013. Pathways from university to work: A graduate destination survey of the 2010 cohort of graduates from the Western Cape universities. Wynberg: Cape Higher Education Consortium.
Cline, G.B. and J.M. Luiz. 2013. Information technology systems in public sector health facilities in developing countries: The case of South Africa. BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making 13(13): 1-13.
Crisp, B.R. 2015. Systematic reviews: A social work perspective. Australian Social Work 68(3): 284-295. doi: 10.1080/0312407X.2015.1024266.
Dawson, P., K. Charman and S. Kilpatrick. 2013. The new higher education reality: What is an appropriate model to address the widening participation agenda? Higher Education Research and Development 32(5): 706-1721. doi: 10.1080/07294360.2013.776520.
De Guzman, A.B. and B.V. de Castro. 2008. Employment and employability profile of a select group of Filipino college graduates. KEDI Journal of Educational Policy 5(1): 63-81.
Du Toit, J., A. Kraak, J. Favish and L. Fletcher. 2014. From study to work: methodological challenges of a destination survey in the Western Cape, South Africa. Assessment &
Evaluation in Higher Education 39(7): 853-864. doi: 10.1080/02602938.2013.875118.
Goldwyn-Simpkins, H. 2015. What do graduates do. Manchester: Prospects/AGCAS.
Gotch, C. 2008. Results of the survey of 2005-2006 alumni. https://ir.wsu.edu/documents/2017/01/alumni-survey-undergraduate-class-of-2005-06-full-report.pdf (accessed 21 May 2015).
Guthrie, B. 2014. Australian graduate survey 2013: A report of the conduct of the 2013 Australian graduate survey. Melbourne: Graduate Careers Australia Ltd.
Hayati, N.R. and T.I. Muschlish. 2013. Studies for enhancing graduates’ relevance and competitiveness. Review of Higher Education and Self-Learning 6(20): 33-40.
Higher Education Statistics Agency. 2013. “Destinations of Leavers from Higher Education 2011/12”. HESA.ac.uk. https://www.hesa.ac.uk/data-and-analysis/publications/destinations-2011-12 (accessed 7 April 2015).
Hobden, P. and S. Hobden. 2015. A study of the transition pathways of school level scholarship recipients into work and tertiary education. South African Journal of Education 35(3): 1-10.
Jaakkimainen, R.L., S.E. Schultz, R.H. Glazier, C. Abrahams and S. Verma. 2012. Tracking family medicine graduates. Where do they go, what services do they provide and whom do they see? BMC Family Practice 13(26): 1-11. doi: 10.1186/1471-2296-13-26.
Kraak, A. 2015. The value of graduate destination survey data in understanding graduate unemployment: A focus on the universities of technology. South African Journal of Labour Relations 39(1): 93-113.
Lambert, A.D. and A.L. Miller. 2014. Lower response rates on alumni surveys might not mean lower response representativeness. Educational Research Quarterly 37(3): 38-51.
Lassey, A.T., P.D. Lassey, and M. Boamah. 2013. Career destination of University of Ghana medical school graduates of various year groups. Ghana Medical Journal 47(2): 87-91.
Letseka, M., M. Cosser, M. Breier and M. Visser. 2010. Student retention & graduation destination: Higher education & labour market access & success. Cape Town: HSRC Press.
Littell, J. H. 2005. Lessons from a systematic review of effects of multisystemic therapy. Children and Youth Services Review 27(4): 445-463. doi:10.1016/j.childyouth.2004.11.009
Lutwama, E. and I.M.N. Kigongo-Bukenya. 2004. A tracer study of the East African school of library and information science graduates 1995-1999 working in Uganda. SA Journal of Library and Information Science 70(2): 99-109.
Maistry, S.M. 2012. Confronting the neo-liberal brute: Reflections of a higher education middle-level manager. South African Journal of Higher Education 26(3): 515-528.
McFarlane, C. 2006. Crossing borders: Development, learning and the North-South divide. Third World Quarterly 27(8): 1413-1437.
Mouton, J., N. Boshoff, M. James and R. Treptow. 2010. Consensus study on the state of the humanities in South Africa: Status, prospects and strategies. Pretoria: Academy of Science of South Africa.
Mubuuke, A.G., F. Businge and E. Kiguli-Malwadde. 2014. Using graduates as key stakeholders to inform training and policy in health professions: The hidden potential of tracer studies. African Journal of Health Professions Education 6(1): 52-55. doi: 10.7196/AJHPE.302.
National Association of Colleges and Employers. 2016. First destinations for the college class of 2015. Bethlehem, PA:
National Association of Colleges and Employers.
North Carolina State University. 2015. 2015 alumni survey: Introduction, methods, and alumni demographic profile. https://oirp.ncsu.edu/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/alum15.intro_.pdf (accessed November 21, 2016).
Petticrew, M., and H. Roberts. 2006. Systematic reviews in the social sciences: A practical guide. New Jersey: Wiley-Blackwell.
Pickering, C., J. Grignon, R. Steven, D. Guitart and J. Byrne. 2015. Publishing not perishing: How research students transition from novice to knowledgeable using systematic quantitative literature reviews. Studies in
Higher Education 40(10): 1756-1769. doi: 10.1080/03075079.2014.914907.
Purcell, K. and P. Elias. 2004. Seven years on: Graduate careers in a changing labour market. Manchester: HECSU, ESRC, IER, ESRU.
Robson, C. 2011. Surveys and questionnaires. In Real world research: A resource for users of social research methods in applied settings, 235-277. Chichester, West Sussex: Wiley.
Rogan, M., J. Reynolds, U. du Plessis, R. Bally and K. Whitfield. 2015. Pathways through university and into the labour market. Report on a graduate tracer study from the Eastern Cape. http://www.lmip.org.za/sites/default/files/documentfiles/LMIP%20Report%2018%20Eastern%20Cape%20WEB_0.pdf (accessed April 18, 2017).
Schonfeldt, H.C., N. Gibson and H. Vermeulen. 2010. The possible impact of inflation on nutritionally vulnerable household in a developing country using South Africa as a case study. Nutrition Bulletin 35: 254-267.
Shongwe, M. and D.N. Ocholla. 2011. A tracer study of LIS graduates from the University of Zululand, 2000-2009. Mousaion 29(2): 277-245.
Sing, R. 2010. “Career trajectories of masters in education (M.Ed) Class of 1999 at the University of the Witwatersrand” masters research report, the University of the Witwatersrand, 2010, 0010619 T.
Stilwell, C. 2004. Alumni perceptions of post-graduate information and library science education programme at the University of Natal, South Africa. South African Journal of Libraries and Information Science 70(1): 20-29. Doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.7553/70-1-691
Thomas, J. and A. Harden. 2008. Methods for the thematic synthesis of qualitative research in systematic reviews. BMC Medical Research Methodology 8(45): 1-10. doi: 10.1186/1471-2288-8-45
United Nations Development Programme. 2015. Human development report 2015. New York: United Nations Development Programme.
Varalakshmi, R.S.R. 2006. Education 21st century LIS professionals - Needs and expectations: A survey of Indian LIS professionals and alumni. Journal of Education for Library and Information Science 47(3): 181-199.
Zembere, S.N. and M.P.M. Chinyama. 1998. The University of Malawi graduate tracer study 1996. http://rc.aau.org/files/ZEMBERE.pdf
Copyright (c) 2019 Janine Senekal, Nicholas Munro
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
This journal is an open access journal, and the authors and journal should be properly acknowledged, when works are cited.
Authors, copyright holders, may use the publishers version for teaching purposes, in books, theses, dissertations, conferences and conference papers.
A copy of the authors' publishers version may also be hosted on the following websites:
- Non-commercial personal homepage or blog.
- Institutional webpage.
- Authors Institutional Repository.
The following notice should accompany such a posting on the website: This is an electronic version of an article published in SAJHE, Volume XXX, number XXX, pages XXX “XXX", DOI. Authors should also supply a hyperlink to the original paper or indicate where the original paper (http://www.journals.ac.za/index.php/SAJHE) may be found.
Authors publishers version, affiliated with the Stellenbosch University will be automatically deposited in the University Institutional Repository SUNScholar.
Articles as a whole, may not be re-published with another journal.
The following license applies:
Attribution CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
