Life After UMaine - Surveys of Recent Graduates at UMaine and
Other New England Landgrants: A Comparison
Introduction
The University of Maine has been conducting annual surveys of its
recent baccalaureate degree recipients beginning with the AY 97-98
group. These surveys are designed to collect information on the
employment and educational status of its graduates, as well as
their perceptions of how well UMaine prepared them for their
career and/or further educational pursuits. This report compares
the methods and selected results of UMaine post graduate surveys
with four other New England Landgrant Universities (UMass does not
conduct a comparable survey).
Methods
UMaine mails surveys to all recent baccalaureate degree students
who have been out of school 6 to 15 months, depending on their
graduation date. The other New England Landgrant Universities
that conduct surveys with similar methods are the University of
Vermont (11 to 12 months after graduation), University of New
Hampshire (12 months after graduation), University of Connecticut
(3 to 15 months after graduation), and University of Rhode Island
(12 months after graduation). These four universities along with
UMaine survey their entire graduating population with mailed
questionnaires. UMaine has the highest response rates to its
surveys, 50-53% compared to 40% for UVM, 37-40% for UConn, and
36-37% for UNH (Table 1). UMaine's higher response rates are most
likely due to its greater efforts to contact non-responders after
the initial mailing (Table 2).
|
Table 1.
Response rates for New England Landgrant Universities that
conducted recent graduate surveys. |
|
University |
Conferral Dates |
Survey Year |
Response
Rate |
|
UMaine |
Dec. 2001 to Aug. 2002 |
2003 |
51% |
|
|
Dec. 2000 to Aug. 2001 |
2002 |
50% |
|
|
Dec. 1999 to Aug. 2000 |
2001 |
53% |
|
UNH |
May 2001 |
2002 |
36% |
|
|
May 2000 |
2001 |
37% |
|
UVM |
May 2001 |
2002 |
40% |
|
|
May 2000 |
2001 |
40% |
|
UConn |
June 2001 to May 2002 |
2002 |
37% |
|
|
June 2000 to May 2001 |
2001 |
40% |
|
|
June 1999 to May 2000 |
2000 |
39% |
|
URI |
May 2001 |
2002 |
12% |
Note: The
2002 survey from URI was its first attempt at a recent graduate
survey.
|
Table 2.
Method of follow-up of non-responders for New England Landgrant
Universities that administer
recent graduate surveys. |
|
University |
Non-responder follow-ups |
|
UMaine |
Letter and
survey sent 1, 2, and 3 months after initial mailing. |
|
UNH |
Postcard
follow-up sent to all 1-2 weeks after initial mailing, and
letter & survey sent 1 month after initial mailing. |
|
UVM |
Letter and
survey sent 6 weeks after initial mailing. |
|
UConn |
Letter and
survey sent 2 months after initial mailing. |
|
URI |
None |
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Comparison of Selected Findings
None of the New
England Landgrant Universities used the same survey instrument or
structured survey items in quite the same way, making the
comparison of findings difficult. However, there were a few
questions that UMaine asked its graduates that can be compared to
the other New England Landgrant Universities (Table 3). When
comparing recent graduates in employment categories, UMaine has
the highest percentages of employed individuals (89-93%) and
compares favorably in graduates' perceptions of how well they are
prepared for their careers (UMaine is slightly higher than UVM
respondents, but slightly lower than UNH respondents) . UMaine
has the 2nd highest percentage of recent graduates enrolled in
graduate school (19-25% compared to UConn's 29-34%). When
comparing recent baccalaureate degree recipients' perceptions of
how well they are prepared for graduate school, the only
comparison that can be made is with UNH. The comparison shows
UMaine having somewhat lower percentages of graduates who perceive
they are well prepared compared to UNH (91-93% to 97-99%,
respectively) (Table 3).
|
Table
3. Comparison of similar questions from UMaine, UNH, UVM and
UConn. |
|
University |
Survey Year |
% Currently Employed
(either FT
or PT) |
"Excellent to Adequate" Job Preparation |
% Currently
in Graduate School (either
FT or PT) |
"Excellent to Adequate"
Grad. School Preparation |
|
UMaine |
2002 |
89.3% |
83.4% |
24.5% |
92.6% |
|
2001 |
92.6% |
84.7% |
18.5% |
90.8% |
|
2000 |
91.9% |
91.5% |
22.9% |
91.9% |
|
UNH
|
2002 |
86.9% |
89.7% |
* |
98.6% |
|
2001 |
87.9% |
91.7% |
* |
96.7% |
|
UVM |
2002 |
90.0% |
80.0% |
8.8% |
* |
|
|
2001 |
86.0% |
80.0% |
16.0% |
* |
|
UConn |
2002 |
79.0% |
* |
34.0% |
* |
|
|
2001 |
82.0% |
* |
31.0% |
* |
|
|
2000 |
84.0% |
* |
29.0% |
* |
|
* Either
the item was not on the survey or not comparable at all to
the UMaine survey item. |
Note: URI
data was not included in this comparison due to its very low
response rate (Table 1).
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