Students' Undergraduate Expectations and Post‐graduation Experiences of the Value of a Degree

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Students' Undergraduate Expectations
and Post‐graduation Experiences of the
Value of a Degree
SHARON GEDYE
a
, ELIZABETH FENDER
a
& BRIAN CHALKLEY
a
a
LTSN National Subject Centre for Geography, Earth and
Environmental Sciences , University of Plymouth , UK
Published online: 22 Jan 2007.
To cite this article: SHARON GEDYE , ELIZABETH FENDER & BRIAN CHALKLEY (2004) Students'
Undergraduate Expectations and Post‐graduation Experiences of the Value of a Degree, Journal of
Geography in Higher Education, 28:3, 381-396, DOI: 10.1080/0309826042000286956
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Students' Undergraduate Expectations and Post-graduation
Experiences of the Value of a Degree
SHARON GEDYE, ELIZABETH FENDER & BRIAN CHALKLEY
LTSN National Subject Centre for Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of
Plymouth, UK
ABSTRACT The internationally shared belief that higher education has a role to play in
delivering graduates with an ability to contribute to the knowledge-based economy is one
of the main driving forces behind the èmployability agenda' that has emerged in UK
higher education in recent years. For a variety of reasons, including the genuine desire to
meet the needs of its graduates, geography is responding to the employability agenda
through curriculum change and innovation. However, it is important that any
employment-related developments and initiatives are informed by the opinions and
experiences of present and former students. This paper addresses this need by comparing
the undergraduate career expectations and post-graduation career experiences of
geography students from the University of Plymouth. The study allows comparisons to
be made between two cohorts and reveals which aspects of their degree the graduate cohort
found to be most and least useful in their current employment.
KEY WORDS: Careers, employability, graduates, undergraduates, expectations,
experience
Introduction
In recent years, higher education (HE) in the United Kingdom (UK) (as in many
other countries) has come under increasing pressure to deliver graduates who are
prepared for the world of work. This pressure results from developments in the
national and international economy, from changes in students' ®nancial circum-
stances and from government demands for a greater focus on èmployability' in
HE curricula (e.g. DfES, 2003; Nelson, 2003).
The term èmployability', not widely used outside the UK (Little, 2003, p. 1), is a
dif®cult concept to de®ne concisely and comprehensively (Lees, 2002). As Hillage
and Pollard (1998, p. 1) note, it is a term `ùsed in a variety of contexts with a range
of meanings and it can lack clarity and precision as an operational concept''. The
de®nition offered here is that given by Little (2003, p. 1) who states that
employability is `à set of achievements, understanding and personal attributes
Correspondence address: Sharon Gedye, LTSN National Subject Centre for Geography, Earth and
Environmental Sciences, University of Plymouth, Buckland House, Portland Mews, Plymouth, PL4 8AA,
UK. Email: sharon.gedye@plymouth.ac.uk
0309±8265 Print/1466±1845 Online/04/030381-16 ã 2004 Taylor & Francis Ltd.
DOI: 10.1080/0309826042000286956
Journal of Geography in Higher Education, Vol. 28, No. 3,
381±396, November 2004
Downloadedby[InternationalIslamicUniversityMalaysiaIIUM]at19:2612April2015

that make individuals more likely to gain employment and be successful in their
chosen occupations.''
In the 1990s, HE addressed the issue of graduate employability by focusing on
the development of transferable skills in undergraduates (NCIHE, 1997). Now, the
employability agenda is moving beyond transferable skills to include personal
development planning (PDP1
), opportunities for work experience and improved
careers guidance and planning (Harvey et al., 2002; Yorke & Knight, 2003).
Geography undergraduate degree providers have generally been successful in
delivering transferable skills to their graduates, not least because geography as a
subject is inherently suited to wide-ranging skills development (QAA, 1995;
Chalkley & Harwood, 1998; GDN, 2000). In the future, geography degree
programmes will almost certainly continue to respond to the employability
agenda. It is important that they do so in order to help combat the image of a
subject which, apart from teaching and town planning, is widely (if wrongly)
perceived as somewhat lacking in vocational relevance (Le Heron & Hathaway,
2000). A stronger focus on employability should also help to strengthen
undergraduate recruitment (Gardner & Craig, 2001) as, faced with the prospect
of heavy debts, students (and their parents) are increasingly concerned about
career prospects. Within this changing academic and economic climate, geog-
raphy needs to develop a better understanding of both the prior expectations and
the post-graduation experiences of its students as at present little beyond the
anecdotal is known about either. This is important so that any action taken to
address employability through the curriculum is carefully planned and fully
appropriate to geography students' needs and aspirations.
The Employability Agenda
It is widely accepted that Western economies are becoming increasingly based on
knowledge, information and communication (rather than on physical produc-
tion), leading to the coining of the term `knowledge economy'. If countries are to
compete in the global, knowledge-driven economy, the development of a highly
educated workforce is viewed as essential for future prosperity (Harvey et al.,
1997; NCIHE, 1997). Economic globalization, the digital revolution and a shift
further towards service-based production are all components of the new economy
(Leadbeater, 2000). The workplace is also becoming increasingly subject to
change. For employees, this means an increased likelihood of having to make
several career turns and adjustments. Within any given profession, it is also
expected that the nature of the job too will undergo signi®cant change. In order to
compete for employment in this changing labour market, graduates will need to
be equipped with knowledge, intellect, skills, ¯exibility and adaptability. Lifelong
learning skills will become increasingly important for a `portfolio career' since the
graduate of the twenty-®rst century can no longer expect a job, or indeed a career,
for life (Harvey et al., 1997).
In this context, geography graduates are better placed than most to enter and be
effective in contemporary and future employment. Flexibility and adaptability are
qualities that all geographers should develop through the study of such a varied
subject discipline. There is also an emerging need in business for global
knowledge and an understanding of international perspectives. This, coupled
with the growing attention being paid to environmental and sustainability issues
and the spatially oriented technical skills of GIS, remote sensing and geodemo-
382 S. Gedye et al.

graphics, puts geography graduates in a strong position for marketing themselves
and obtaining employment.
Higher education in the UK, as elsewhere, has a growing responsibility towards
the employment prospects of its graduates, as students begin to act as customers.
This is due to the greater costs borne by students and their families in obtaining a
higher education. The necessity to ®nd well-paid employment to pay off debts
and the pressure of higher numbers of graduates in the employment market
competing for `graduate-level' jobs means that prospective students are likely to
make decisions as to where to study on the basis of the graduate employment
record of particular courses and institutions. Such a situation is not new in the
USA where students, unless on scholarships, have been paying tuition and
maintenance fees for many years. Similarly in Australia, a high proportion of the
HE costs have long been borne by students (and parents). This has led to a
signi®cant shift in favour of provision and a merging of geography with other
departments (Jones, 2002). The clear need for geography to respond to the careers
and employability agenda is also evident in many parts of Europe. At the launch
conference of the European Network for HE Geography (HERODOT) held in
London in the spring of 2003, delegates from across the continent highlighted the
importance of enhancing geography's career credentials.
In the UK the government has made it very clear that employability is high on
its list of priorities for post-compulsory education and a strong vocational theme
runs throughout its 2003 White Paper on the future of HE (DfES, 2003). Higher
education institutions are expected to monitor, evaluate and improve their careers
education, information and guidance in ways set out by the Quality Assurance
Agency (undated). As of 2000, institutions have been required to supply data on
the employment of their most recent graduates for national performance indicator
purposes. These data, published annually, are taken up by national newspapers
who use it to construct university league tables. In this way, the employment
record of HE institutions and speci®c courses is widely available to the public at
large and, more speci®cally, prospective students. With the government, the
media, students and their parents all taking an increased interest in employability,
this is an agenda no discipline can afford to ignore.
Delivering Geography Employability: Work in Progress
The main efforts so far to enhance geographers' employability have been through
a focus on developing their transferable skills (e.g. Jenkins & Ward, 1995; Chalkley
& Harwood, 1998). In the UK, geography has made good progress in this area
partly because of its nature as a subject rich in opportunities to develop a wide
range of skills. These are mainly practised and developed within existing
geography modules but, in addition, some departments also provide new
modules focused principally on skills development. These skills have been
increasingly formalized through assessment and there have been efforts to make
students more aware of the expertise they are developing throughout their course
in areas such as communication, numeracy, information technology and team-
working (GDN, 2000). In the USA and Australia by contrast, the range of
disciplines each undergraduate is likely to study has made the design of
coordinated skills curricula more dif®cult than in the UK where single-subject
degrees are the norm and where a coherent skills curriculum is a key feature of the
geography national benchmark.
Expectations and Experiences of Degree Value 383

Despite UK geographers having taken a leading role in transferable skills they
have, so far, given rather less attention to areas such as work placements, careers
education and personal development planning (PDP). In the USA, work
placements, known as internships, are widespread (Sublett & Mattingly, 1995;
McMaster, 1999) but in the UK they are generally less common. In the UK,
geography examples of more substantial work experience, such as the sandwich
degree (a work-based year out) offered by Coventry University, are extremely
rare. Initiatives to develop soft skills and attributes such as self-con®dence,
business awareness, entrepreneurship and intrapreneurship (the art of working
within an organization to effect change) are very much the exception rather than
the rule, although there are an increasing number of UK geography departments
with work-based learning modules (e.g. Jenkins & Healey, 1995; LTSN GEES,
2001; Kneale, 2003).
The pace of curriculum change is, of course, in¯uenced by the continuing
debate over how far geography should react to the employability agenda. Some,
such as Marantz and Warren (1998, p. 50) argue that ``vocational training has in
itself little or no educational value'', and many feel that it is within neither the
experience nor the job speci®cation of geography academics to offer careers
education and guidance. However, the development of GIS and remote sensing in
geography-related programmes, and the growth in jobs in these areas, demon-
strates that the educational value of vocational training is a grey area. The
changing economic and political context of HE, the increased employment
expectations of students and initial positive attitudes from students to work
experience all lead Glover et al. (2002, p. 304) to conclude that ``university
departments will ignore some enhancement of career-related approaches at their
peril''.
Unfortunately, within this increasingly signi®cant employability agenda, very
little is known about geography student expectations on entry into higher
education or about the career experience of geographers post-graduation. First
Destination Survey (FDS) data provide information on what students are doing 6
months after graduation but this is only a snapshot and reveals only basic
employment facts. Clark and Higgitt (1997) published an interesting survey on
geography graduate employment experience but beyond this very little informa-
tion exists. It is clearly important that more evidence is produced both on what
incoming geographers expect from their degree and on what is actually achieved
subsequently in employment terms.
Methods
Within the context described, the aim of the research presented here was to
compare undergraduate student expectations of employability with the views
and&experiences of recent graduates. The study focused on single-honours
geography and combined honours geography major programmes from the
University of Plymouth, UK. Plymouth was chosen in the ®rst instance for purely
practical reasons. Obtaining contact information on graduates can prove prob-
lematic because data protection legislation makes it dif®cult to gain access to
database information at other institutions. The relationship of the authors to the
university facilitated access to its alumni database. The department size (intake
180±200 students a year) was also a consideration as it helped to obtain a
suf®ciently large survey return. The quality of the alumni list was also a key
384 S. Gedye et al.

advantage as was highlighted by Clark and Higgitt (1997) in their work on tracing
former graduates. It is important to note that the graduates and undergraduates
surveyed here are two separate groups, i.e. the survey does not question
undergraduates and then re-survey them a few years later after they have
graduated. It does not therefore give a direct `before' and `after' picture of one
group of students. However, there are no reasons for believing this invalidates the
Plymouth survey, particularly given that the students were from the same
institution and had all at some stage applied for essentially the same geography
programme (albeit there have of course been curricula updates in the intervening
years).
However, since this study focuses on a single university, the results cannot
claim to be fully representative of geography students from all institutions.
Nonetheless, the geographical curriculum and course provision at Plymouth can
be regarded as fairly typical of UK institutions. There is a balance between human
and physical geography, ®eldwork and geographical techniques, specialist
modules in the main sub-disciplines (such as geomorphology, cultural geog-
raphy, etc.) and a ®nal-year project/dissertation. There is a strong emphasis on
developing key skills across the programmes, a compulsory module in career
development, and the opportunity to do an optional module in work-based
learning (which about 10 per cent of students take). As such, it may be considered
if anything to be rather more employment focused than many of its counterparts
in other departments/institutions.
Questionnaires to both cohorts contained a mixture of closed and open-ended
questions. The undergraduate survey focused on establishing student
expectations of what they will learn from their degree and on its likely
career value. The graduate survey examined opinions, based on actual
experience, of the career value of their geography degree and asked them to
gauge whether (with hindsight) various aspects of their degree course
were given too much, too little or about the right level of attention. A pilot
run of six students was used to check both questionnaires for de®ciencies.
The undergraduate questionnaire was given to all ®rst-year students at the
beginning of the academic year in 2001 in order to identify entry-level opinions. It
was delivered to students within a timetabled session in order to maximize the
survey return (response rate of around 75 per cent of the total cohort).
A postal questionnaire was used to contact the graduate cohort. A total of
203 graduates were randomly selected from an alumni list of geographers
who graduated between 1994 and 1999. Of the 203 selected
graduates, questionnaires were returned from 105, giving a response
level of almost 52 per cent. This is a high response rate for a postal
questionnaire that typically achieve ®gures of between 20 per cent and
30 per cent. Although the graduate survey return was high, some sources
of bias may nonetheless be present in the data set. The alumni list from
which graduate contact details was obtained is self-selecting. It is possible
therefore that graduates putting themselves on an alumni list had a more
positive experience of higher education than those who did not register. For
those graduates contacted in this survey, it is possible that those with particularly
strong opinions are more likely to respond, as perhaps are those who obtained
a good degree classi®cation. The later point is borne out by the survey return
data. Some 61 per cent of questionnaire returns were from graduates

who obtained at least an upper second degree classi®cation. If the data were
entirely representative, this proportion should have been about 50 per cent.
Results
Why Study for a Degree?
For both the undergraduates and graduates surveyed, the dominant reason they
chose to study for a degree was to improve their job/career prospects (see Table 1).
In total, 84 per cent of undergraduates and 72 per cent of graduates gave this as a
reason why they went into higher education. For the undergraduate group, these
opinions are supported by the responses given to the open-ended question
`Overall, what do you hope to gain most from having a degree in geography?'.
Comments relating to enhanced employment opportunities were by far the most
frequent opinion expressed. The somewhat higher proportion of today's students
citing career/job prospects as reasons for studying for a degree may indicate a
trend towards a greater focus on employment.
Why Geography?
In choosing what subject to study, both undergraduates and graduates were most
Table 2. Which of the following factors in¯uenced your decision to study
geography? (tick up to 2): (Please note, multiple response, percentages add up
to more than 100 per cent.)
% of students selecting response
Undergraduates Graduates
enjoyed/did well at geography at school 94 95
opens up a wide range of career options 58 29
subject directly relates to the career path you have in mind 8 11
other, please state 2 7
no second response 38 58
Table 1. What are the two main factors that made you want to study for a
degree? (Please note, multiple response, percentages add up to more than 100
per cent.)
to develop your subject knowledge/skills 49 50
to develop your transferable skills 10 11
to improve your job/career prospects 84 74
to gain life experience 47 51
to leave home 5 5
386 S. Gedye et al.

likely to say they opted to do geography because they enjoyed it or did well at it at
school (94 per cent and 95 per cent respectively) (see Table 2). The current
undergraduate students (58 per cent) were twice as likely as graduates (29 per
cent) to study geography because it opens up a wide range of career options. This
tends to con®rm the move towards a focus on employability as a reason both for
entering higher education and for the choice of subject. However, the substantial
difference between the two groups may also suggest that geography graduates
had toned down their aspirations where they had not found the level of job
opportunities they had initially hoped for. Whether this is due to unrealistic
ambitions or a strongly competitive graduate labour market is dif®cult to say.
More insightful comments received from graduates in response to an open
question on the career value of their degree suggest that some had encountered
the need for a more specialist quali®cation. A selection of these comments is given
below:
¼ if you want to go into a speci®c industry e.g. planning, a postgraduate
quali®cation is often the only way to get in.
In terms of job outlookÐI needed to be more specialist i.e. chemistry and
physics for the type of job I would have gone for e.g. Environment
Agency.
I enjoyed the course because of my personal interest in geography but it
did not enable me to follow the career path intended, which was
Environmental Consultancy.
It was noticeable that very few graduates or undergraduates opted for a
geography degree because they had a particular career in mind (only 11 per cent
and 8 per cent respectively). This is because many students who do have a clear
idea of their graduate career plans are likely to opt for a subject that speci®cally
targets their particular career aspirations. The breadth offered by a geography
degree is ideally suited to those who enjoy the subject and who have yet to decide
Table 3. Which of the following factors, if any, in¯uenced your decision to
study geography at the University of Plymouth (tick up to 3). (Please note,
multiple response, percentages add up to more than 100 per cent.)
choice of Joint Honours with a variety of subjects 15 8
content of module subjects available 53 69
foreign ®eld trip destinations 41 32
choice of BSc/BA pathway 38 25
high level of graduate recruitment associated with course 34 3
course emphasis on transferable skills 21 21
work based learning modules available 7 3
no ®rst response 1 2
no third response 58 71

on a career path. In these circumstances, geography offers the bene®ts of ¯exibility
and a deferred career choice.
Choosing a Place to Study
For both the graduate and undergraduate cohorts the most important reason for
choosing to study geography at the University of Plymouth was the content of the
module subjects available (69 per cent and 53 per cent respectively) (see Table 3).
For the undergraduates, the high level of graduate employability they associated
with the course (34 per cent) was also an important consideration. This factor was
barely noted by the graduates in the survey (3 per cent), a difference that may
again re¯ect the increased importance which students are now attaching to jobs
and careers, and also the increased prominence of careers and employability in
the departments' promotional literature.
Geography and Employability
A key ®nding of this research is that undergraduate opinions on the career value
of their geography degree appear to be optimistic when compared with the actual
experience of the graduate cohort. Thus 97 per cent of the undergraduate group
agreed or strongly agreed that their geography degree will substantially improve
their job prospects compared with only 60 per cent of graduates who agreed or
strongly agreed that their geography degree had in practice substantially
improved their job prospects. Similarly, 97 per cent of undergraduates agreed
or strongly agreed that geographers are quali®ed for a range of careers on
graduation, compared with 77 per cent of graduates.
The graduates were asked to re¯ect on the impact their geography degree
has had on their career. The responses suggest that their degree has bene®ted
most of them in getting a graduate job: 70 per cent of those surveyed agreed or
strongly agreed that their degree had enabled them to get a better job than they
would have done without a degree. However, many of the graduate cohort
indicated they are not moving into the kind of employment they really wanted
or would class as a `good' job. Some 35 per cent of the graduates agreed or
strongly agreed with the statement that their degree had ``enabled me to get
the job I really wanted''. Similarly, a further 35 per cent agreed or strongly
agreed with the statement that their degree had ``enabled me to get a good job,
albeit not the one I really wanted''. These levels of career satisfaction are
similar to those reported by Brennan et al. (2001, 2003) for all UK graduates
(averaged across subjects). Degree classi®cation had a signi®cant bearing on
the results reported here, with those holding ®rst class and upper second class
degrees more likely to be satis®ed than those with lower second class and
third class degrees.
Full-time employed Plymouth geography graduates (82 per cent of the
responding cohort) were asked to provide details on the nature of their
employment. Responses indicated, as would be expected for geographers, a
wide range of career paths. The types of full-time employment are too varied
to categorize fully but the most common careers are teaching (16 per cent),
banking/®nance/accounting (12 per cent) and project management (9 per
cent). A ¯avour of the range of full-time employment may be gained from the
following list: administration, cartography, civil service, local authority,
388 S. Gedye et al.

environment agency, human resources, IT, management, marketing, military,
airline pilot, police service, research, retailing and yoga instruction! This wide
spectrum of employment ®elds is re¯ective of the diverse skills that
geography graduates possess and bring to the job market. It seems that, in
their professional lives, most geography graduates are more likely to use their
general skills than their subject-speci®c knowledge. Of the 18 per cent of
graduates not in full-time employment, only 2 per cent were unemployed,
with the others being engaged in activities such as further study and self-
employment.
Geography and the Curriculum
Responses from geography graduates showed that they were more likely to
favour a greater emphasis on careers in the curriculum than were the present
undergraduates. Only 27 per cent of undergraduates surveyed strongly agreed
that careers guidance should be an important part of the curriculum compared
with 62 per cent of graduates. Only 29 per cent of undergraduates agreed or
strongly agreed that geographers often need more vocational training after
graduation. Compare this with the 71 per cent of the graduates of the same
opinion. Interestingly, however, the same proportion of undergraduates and
graduates (92 per cent) agreed or strongly agreed that the curriculum should
include skills useful to employment.
For departments choosing to offer careers assistance through the curricu-
lum, these comments suggest dif®culties in trying to get students to appreciate
the importance of the advice offered. The undergraduate group obviously
does not have the bene®t of hindsight. For them, achieving academic success,
coping with assessments, earning some money to support their studies and
making the most of the social bene®ts of being a student are likely to be much
more immediate concerns.
The data presented here also raise questions regarding advice given to
undergraduates about further training/study. Graduate experience indicates
that, for many, some form of further training is necessary/desirable, a ®nding
reinforced by Clark and Higgitt (1997); by contrast, undergraduates predom-
inantly believe that, in terms of quali®cations, their degree will be enough.
Getting students to think realistically about the need for further training/
study after graduation may need to be addressed as part of the careers advice
given to undergraduates.
In relation to more speci®c aspects of the geography curriculum, under-
graduates were asked to what extent they expected to develop certain skills/
knowledge during their degree. Graduates were asked whether, for the same
list of skills/knowledge, too much, about right or too little attention had been
given in their course (see Table 4). The ®ve skills/knowledge aspects that
undergraduates expected to develop to a great extent were specialist subject
knowledge (66 per cent), research skills (60 per cent), working independently
(60 per cent), critical evaluation/interpretation (56 per cent) and preparing
effective maps and diagrams (55 per cent). The ®ve skills/knowledge aspects
they expected to develop to a lesser extent or not at all were numeracy (42 per
cent), leadership (30 per cent), job search skills (29 per cent), verbal
presentation (18 per cent) and ICT literacy (14 per cent).
Graduates felt that very few aspects of their undergraduate geography

degree had been given too much attention. The only category that appears to
have been slightly `over-taught' was written communication. However, four
skills stand out as having been given too little attention in the opinions of the
graduates: these were job-search skills (77 per cent), verbal presentation (61
per cent), leadership (51 per cent) and information technology literacy (40 per
cent). It was interesting that the more recent graduates (1998 and 1999) were
twice as likely to be satis®ed with the level of teaching on information
technology literacy than the earlier graduates (1994 and 1995), suggesting
improvements in the prior-experience and degree provision of ICT-related
skills (Clark and Higgitt, 1997; Birnie, 1999). Other differences in response are
evident with regard to the degree classi®cation obtained. The lower the degree
classi®cation, the less satis®ed graduates were with the skills provision offered
by their degree course. It is of great interest that all four of the skills that
graduates felt were given too little attention during their degree were amongst
the ®ve skills that undergraduates expected to develop only to a lesser extent
in their degree.
A comparison between the skills that graduates felt had been given too little
attention in this study and those identi®ed as requiring better development in
the study by Clark and Higgitt (1997) reveals some noteworthy similarities
and differences. There is agreement between the two studies that ICT,
Table 4. Undergraduates: `To what extent do you expect to learn the
following?' Graduates: `To what extent do you feel that during your geography
degree course, the following areas were given too much, too little or about the
right level of attention?'
To a
great
extent
To a
moderate
extent
To a
lesser
extent
Not
at
all
Knowledge/Skill/Attribute Too
much
About
right
Too
little
No
response
(%) (%) (%) (%) (%) (%) (%) (%)
66 34 0 0 Specialist subject knowledge 2 92 6 0
50 49 0 1 Application of knowledge 1 85 14 0
36 60 3 1 Logical thinking 0 71 29 0
56 40 3 0 Critical evaluation and interpretation 1 84 15 0
45 46 8 1 Analysing and problem solving 0 80 20 0
48 48 3 1 Written communication 8 88 5 0
25 55 18 0 Verbal presentation 0 39 61 0
8 49 42 0 Numeracy 4 78 18 0
31 55 14 0 Information technology literacy 1 59 40 0
60 38 1 0 Research skills 3 76 20 1
34 55 11 0 Laboratory skills 3 62 34 1
55 42 3 0 Preparing effective maps and diagrams 3 76 21 0
32 55 13 0 Ability to prioritise 0 65 35 0
46 44 8 2 Time management 2 63 34 1
32 60 7 1 Interpersonal skills 3 81 19 0
39 53 7 1 Teamwork 3 87 10 0
60 38 1 1 Working independently 4 95 1 0
10 33 30 5 Leadership 2 47 51 0
40 56 3 0 Project planning e.g. ®eldwork, lab work 1 82 17 0
16 51 29 4 Job search skills 2 21 77 0
390 S. Gedye et al.

problem-solving and verbal presentations are skills de®cit areas. However,
ICT skills and problem-solving were less of a problem to the graduates
surveyed in this study (40 per cent and 20 per cent respectively) than to those
surveyed by Clark and Higgitt (56 per cent and 57 per cent respectively). By
contrast, oral presentation skills were considered to be in greater de®cit in this
study (61 per cent) than among those surveyed by Clark and Higgitt (32 per
cent).
Discussion
This study has provided useful insights into some of the undergraduate
expectations and post-graduation experiences of geography students. Some
of the ®ndings con®rm `conventional wisdoms' on the nature of geography
and geography students; others highlight patterns that are less well
documented, particularly in respect of the views of former students. However,
it must be stressed that these are observations based on a case study of one
department only.
Among the key ®ndings worth highlighting is that geography undergraduates
study for a degree because they expect it to improve their job prospects. Although
geographers want their degree to lead to a `good' job, it is perhaps paradoxical
that opportunities for skills development do not ®gure prominently on their list of
reasons for undertaking a degree. Whether or not undergraduates fully appreciate
the link between enhanced career prospects and transferable skills is questionable,
but certainly they do not see the acquisition of transferable skills as a goal in itself.
Most students choose to study geography because of their enjoyment of the
subject and their ability in it, rather than for any strong convictions about the
speci®c career opportunities it may open up. For geography students, their degree
offers a broad and varied academic experience and one that keeps their future
career options reasonably open. The diverse range of jobs geographers go into, as
demonstrated here and shown by national data (Rothwell et al., 2002), bears out
the ¯exibility offered by the subject and sought by its students.
The career ¯exibility offered by geography is clearly a bene®t to students who,
for the most part, have no clear career plan. However, once in the job market, some
graduates ®nd that they lack the specialized training needed to take them into
certain ®elds. For example, this survey indicates that a signi®cant minority of
students expect their degree to offer a direct route into careers connected to the
environment. However, graduate experience indicates that geographers often
need a postgraduate quali®cation or relevant work experience to gain access to
such careers. This is consistent with the ®nding by Rothwell et al. (2002) that 23 per
cent of all geography graduates go on to some form of further study/training
within the ®rst six months of graduating and with Clark and Higgitt's (1997)
®nding that 70 per cent of the geography graduates they surveyed had obtained
another quali®cation.
Whilst most graduates surveyed here felt that their degree had improved their
employment situation, many did not feel it had enabled them to get the job they
really wanted, or a job that met their expectations. The optimistic opinions
expressed by the undergraduate cohort on the employment bene®ts their
geography degree will bring may go some way to explaining the expectation
shortfall experienced by the graduates. Gaining employment that is personally
and ®nancially rewarding is dif®cult for many graduates (irrespective of their

discipline) and so these ®ndings in themselves should not necessarily be viewed
as particularly concerning for geography as a subject. However, they do highlight
the need, as backed up by graduate opinion in this survey, for better
undergraduate career preparation. In this way students can gain a better
understanding of the quali®cations, qualities and experience they will need to
get the kind of job that meets their expectations, putting them in a better position
to plan for and attain a rewarding career.
It is important that any careers education offered by geography departments
takes account of these considerations, particularly with regard to managing the
sometimes unrealistic careers expectations and often rather vague career plans of
geography students. There is a danger that overly optimistic expectations may
lead to complacency in the undergraduate's career preparations. This is
particularly important because, paradoxically, at a time when the graduate career
market is becoming increasingly dif®cult, more graduates than ever are leaving
careers action and applications until after they graduate (Guardian, 2002).
This survey has shown that, whilst satis®ed with most aspects of their degree
provision, many graduates feel under-prepared for the world of work with regard
to verbal presentations, leadership and ICT literacy, some of the skills most highly
valued by employers (e.g. Brennan, 2000; Owen, 2001). In order to address these
shortfalls, a number of measures can be taken. Teaching, learning and assessment
may need to be adjusted in order to place greater emphasis on the elements
considered by our graduates to have been given too little attention. This is not to
suggest, however, that the curriculum and its assessment need wholesale
alteration. Many of the skills and attributes highlighted by graduates as needing
more attention are fairly easily addressed by continuing to move towards a more
varied range of learning opportunities and assessment activities. Although
teaching styles and learning opportunities are in general becoming more diverse,
there is still a preponderance of standard writing-based assessments (e.g. essays
and exams) with only a more limited range of assessments that focus on other
skills. It is typical within the duration of a degree for a student frequently to be
required to submit essays and reports, but there are fewer opportunities for
students to develop and reinforce other skills also valued in the workplace.
Interestingly, as regards the four skills de®cit areas highlighted in this survey,
the Plymouth degree does offer relevant learning opportunities in each case, and
so it may be that students simply do not suf®ciently recognize the skills and
attributes they are developing. Plymouth geography courses have included
personal development planning (PDP) since 1997 and, as a result, at least some of
the geography graduates surveyed here should have engaged with the process of
identifying and reviewing the skills and attributes they have acquired. The
requirement to introduce PDPs across all UK higher education institutions by
2005 (Universities UK, 2001) will assist all students in recognizing and
documenting their acquired skills and in action planning in order to address
any weak areas. Students can also be helped to recognize the skills and attributes
they develop by making the learning outcomes of modules, learning activities and
assignments clear and explicit, not buried in programme documentation.
Considerable progress has been made in this respect in recent years, driven by
quality assurance procedures, both in Plymouth and more generally across UK
higher education.
The aspect of the curriculum that graduates identi®ed as being most lacking
was in respect of job search skills. Most graduates felt strongly that career
392 S. Gedye et al.

guidance should be an important part of the degree programme. At Plymouth, a
year three module `Geography, Employment and Careers' was introduced as a
compulsory part of the geography programme in 1999 to address this perceived
need. However, since all the graduates questioned in this survey graduated
between 1994 and 1999, this important curriculum change would have had no
bearing on the experience of the graduate students taking part in this survey.
Relatively few UK geography programmes offer structured assistance to their
students on career preparation through careers modules, despite the Quality
Assurance Agency recommendation that careers education, information and
guidance should be integrated within the curriculum for all higher education
programmes of study2
(QAA, undated). Where careers modules are in place, they
are typically optional. Career advice is normally provided by an institution's
careers service and sometimes informally by individual tutors if asked. The onus
is on the student to seek out careers advice and information rather than on
requiring the student to encounter it as an integral part of his/her course.
The realm of careers education is dif®cult territory for academic departments.
Many lecturers feel insuf®ciently equipped to offer expert careers advice and
some would not view it as the job of an academic department to provide such
guidance. It is not the purpose of this discussion to take sides or preach on this
matter, but it is important to recognize that many geographers (no doubt like
students of other subjects) leave their degree course feeling not suf®ciently
prepared for ®nding a job. Again, the introduction of personal development
planning (PDP) may assist students to think more carefully about their future
career and may help individual tutors to enter a more structured dialogue with
their tutees about career preparation. It is interesting that of®cial encouragement
for both embedded careers education and PDP should in time enhance UK
geographers' employability but that these initiatives seem at present to have few
direct equivalents in the USA, Australia and elsewhere in Europe.
Conclusions
On the basis of the research evidence in this paper, the overwhelming reason why
UK geography students choose to study for a degree is to improve their career
prospects; and yet, enhancing employability is not always a principal concern in
curriculum design. Few UK geography departments for example, have an
employability policy and some would argue, with a measure of justi®cation, that a
rigorous intellectual training is in itself an excellent foundation for entry to the
world of work.
Certainly, it is reassuring that the opinions expressed by graduates in this
survey suggest that their degree generally lived up to expectations and was
worthwhile for many different reasons. Few curriculum areas were considered
over-taught and there were many positive comments particularly about the more
memorable aspects of the undergraduate experience such as ®eldwork.
Nonetheless, in certain areas (such as job search skills, verbal presentation,
leadership and ICT literacy), they did not feel adequately prepared for employ-
ment. Geography degree programmes could address these kinds of concerns by
(a) regularly researching the views of former students and, where appropriate,
adjusting the curriculum accordingly; (b) making more accessible and explicit the
skills and employability learning outcomes in programme, module and assess-

ment information; and (c) helping students recognize and appreciate the skills and
attributes they are developing that are of value to prospective employers.
Graduates strongly expressed the need for job search skills to be part of the
degree programme, an opinion based on their experience in the job market.
Plymouth has introduced a compulsory careers module but such provision is far
from widespread across UK geography departments. However, since `incoming'
undergraduates expect to receive little or no career preparation as part of the
curriculum and since they have high expectations that their degree will
substantially improve their job prospects, departments may experience dif®culty
in `selling' careers modules to their students. We are, it seems, in a somewhat
paradoxical situation where students expect to obtain worthwhile careers without
necessarily having to invest in careers education.
Finally, it is worth underlining that although the research evidence for this
paper comes from a case study of a single department, many of the issues
raised will, to various extents, have resonances in departments and institutions
across the UK. Geography at Plymouth was rated `excellent' in the last national
`Teaching Quality Assessment' exercise (Chalkley, 1996) and is generally regarded
as quite a progressive department with regard to issues such as skills, careers
education and employability. Nonetheless, the evidence from this survey has
already initiated a departmental debate about what further steps need to be taken
to ensure that our students' geographical education is both academically rigorous
and career enhancing. Interestingly, a key area of this debate focuses on whether it
should be geography academics or specialist careers advisers who should take the
lead in any future developments. Many academics feel that they lack appropriate
expertise and experience (particularly in careers education), but careers advisers
are busy meeting the needs of the institution as a whole and can lack the ability to
make subject-speci®c connections. In practice, therefore, the most likely outcome is
some form of continued but strengthened partnership.
Most UK universities (including Plymouth) are currently in the throes of
developing institutional employability strategies and geography departments will
in due course be involved in their delivery and implementation. The time is right
therefore for geographers (along with others) to discuss their response to the
employability agenda and to share views, ideas and experiences with others. Here
in the UK, the Learning and Teaching Support Network (LTSN) National Subject
Centre for Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences (based at the University
of Plymouth) will be helping to facilitate this debate. In addition, however, it is
important to share ideas internationally and learn from the employability
experience of geographers and geography departments in other countries. The
present article has focussed on UK-based research. It is hoped that this article will
serve as a prompt for geographers from other parts of the world to share their
ideas and their evidence on the employability of geography graduates in their
own countries. Each national (and departmental) situation will, of course, have its
own distinctive features but in a globalizing world there will be much to learn on
these matters from a dialogue that is genuinely international.
Notes
1. Personal Development Planning (PDP) describes the process in which HE teachers
encourage students to re¯ect on and evaluate their own learning experiences and
plan for their own development.
394 S. Gedye et al.

2. A snapshot view was obtained by looking at the online course details of 10 UK
geography departments, listed ®rst in an Internet search. The course information
revealed only one department with a careers-related module as part of the
departmental curricula.
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