ONLINE DEGREES

Employer's perceptions on online degrees



Employers perceptions on online degrees

Introduction

Graduate recruitment has become one of the tough challenges for an increasing number of employers who have realised that the future of their organizations depends on the recruitment and selection of the best among an increasing number of graduates in different disciplines from a wider range of higher education institutions. Since the mid-1980s the number of people entering higher education in the UK has more than doubled, but many employers are still unable to recruit the types of employee they really need (Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, 2007a, b, c). There has been an ongoing change in the process of graduate recruitment, as many of the sectors that were traditionally for non-graduates have had to join in the race in the graduate recruitment market. It seems, however, that the list of desirable qualities from graduates becomes more sophisticated as employers' searches for ideal graduates continue. In this study, the word “graduate” is used to mean both undergraduate (bachelor's degree) and postgraduate (Master's degree) from university or college. The Association of Graduate Recruiters (1999) reported that despite receiving an average of 68 applications per vacancy and despite handling almost 4,000 applications, graduate employers still find it hard to fill vacancies, largely because of shortages of good quality graduates. More and more employers have had to cope with high volumes of applicants in order to fill in very limited vacancies.

This study focuses on graduate recruitment and selection methods and graduate employers' expectations in the light of recent changes in higher education and the graduate labour market. Socio-economic and political changes as well as developments in information technology have all led to the introduction of new and more sophisticated methods of graduate recruitment and selection (Sackett and Lievens, 2008). Graduate recruiters, who are the majority of employers in the UK, have to act and respond faster and more efficiently not just to an increasing number of applicants but also to beat increasing competition from other graduate employers.

Higher education and graduate labour market

One of the main objectives of higher education in universities, colleges, institutes and graduate schools is to prepare people for more complex forms of work and employment by equipping them with the knowledge and skills needed by employers. It is usually argued that higher education institutions have prominent roles to play in preparing students for employment and that it is their duty to do so (Nabi and Bagley, 1999). However, it can be also argued that higher education institutions are not employment and training agencies and that their role is to enhance knowledge and learning regardless of what employers require.

There have also been a number of significant changes in the composition of the graduate labour market. For example, of the 216,000 students enrolled in higher education in 1963 only 4,000 (1.85 percent) were female (Goodman, 1993, p. 12). By 1998 the number went up to over 935,545 or about 53 percent of the 1,765,180 people enrolled in higher education (UCAS, ...