For the first time, the postcollege outcomes of recent graduates have been collected and analyzed by a national organization using data gathered by more than 200 higher education institutions, all using the same methodology.
A new survey by the National Association of Colleges and Employers used data from 207 of its member institutions to determine the outcomes of roughly 274,000 graduates in the class of 2014. Officials behind the survey hope the results can set a baseline for where college graduates go once they leave the classroom and the consistent data may help others to determine trends in both labor and higher education.
The survey takes data from the individual institutions and breaks them down several times, including by level of degree of the graduate, size of the college attended, whether the institution was public or private and what kind of outcome the graduate landed in within six months of graduation. Surveys from individual colleges often use different types of criteria, measuring different factors from alumni and asking questions of graduates that another institution might not pose to those taking its survey, leading to disparate data that cannot be compared nationally.
Read more at Inside Higher Ed: https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/06/05/new-national-survey-aims-set-baseline-postgraduation-outcomes