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> Smith and Gorard's full paper is available: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00071005.2011.578567#preview > > I had a good read yesterday - I feel there are indeed some claims and assumptions that are not backed up by the data that was used and analysis that was performed. > Here is what E4E (the profession-wide Education for Engineering policy group) had to say about it: http://www.raeng.org.uk/news/releases/shownews.htm?NewsID=683 Yes, I don't really see what the news story is, of graduate engineers only 6 months after they graduate, from: http://www.hesa.ac.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2150&Itemid=161 70% go straight into a job 18% go onto further study 12% are assumed to be unemployed From the paper: Of those who are employed 46% go into engineering directly plus 20% go into graduate jobs which use their degree 25% are in non-graduate jobs, which after 10% go into 'other' So overall of engineering grads 32% go directly into engineering jobs 18% go into more education 14% go into related jobs 18% go into non-grad jobs 7% go into 'other' 10% are unemployed Which seeing as a lot of people don't start looking for a job until they graduate, some will have constraints on where they can get a job (like family, and friends), and some will just not be very good. So the figures to an untrained ear don't sound bad after 6 months. I am not sure why this was 'press released', the press release and to a large extent the paper are presenting a problem, and then don't really seem to back this up with any context. The release seems to be based on 3 paragraphs in the paper. It doesn't compare across subjects to take into account natural levels of people just changing their mind/life getting in the way/ not getting a job in 6 months. It doesn't look at longer term outcomes etc. etc. Is this just another example of a dodgy press release taking a very very minor part of a slightly odd paper about something else, and blowing it all out of proportion? Just this time it is aimed at us rather than a particular scientific result. Dave ********************************************************************** Further information about the psci-com discussion list, including list archive, can be found at the list web site: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/psci-com.html You may also change your settings and subscribe/unsubscribe to psci-com from the web site. Psci-com is part of the National Academic Mailing List Service, known as 'JISCMail'. It adheres to the JISCMail Acceptable Use Policy: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/policyandsecurity/acceptableuse.html and to the JISCMail guidelines for etiquette: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/policyandsecurity/etiquette.html Email commands: 1. To suspend yourself from the list, whilst on leave, for example, send an email to mailto:[log in to unmask] with the following message: set psci-com nomail -- [include hyphens] 2. To resume email from the list, send an email to [log in to unmask] with the message: set psci-com mail -- [include hyphens] 3. To leave psci-com, send an email to [log in to unmask] with the message: leave psci-com -- [include hyphens] Please allow up to 24 hours for these commands to activate. Remember that you will need to send commands using the same email address that you used to register on psci-com. To contact the Psci-com list owner, please send an email to: [log in to unmask] **********************************************************************