By Steven Krolak
(NEW ALBANY, Ind.)–According to the latest IU survey of graduate outcomes, 96.7 percent of IU Southeast respondents are either employed or continuing their education one year after graduation.
The IU First Destination Survey explores the outcomes of IU undergraduate students in their first year after graduation. The project was a collaborative effort between the Office of Completion and Student Success, Campus Career Services offices, individual campus Institutional Research offices, and University Institutional Research and Reporting (UIRR).
The survey questions focused on the outcomes of IU graduates who were conferred an undergraduate degree during the 2019-2020 fiscal year. Data were collected from primary and secondary sources, including student questionnaires, departmental reports, and social media profiles.
In all, data points from 76.7 percent of IU Southeast graduates were collected.
Of these students, 96.7 percent were either employed (85.4 percent), enrolled in an educational program such as graduate school (10.4 percent) or serving in the military (.6 percent).
Of the 85.4 percent who had accepted offers of employment, 92.9 percent were found to be working full-time, with an average salary of $42,824. This is over twice the amount of the average student debt load.
This year’s numbers show a slight dip in employment. For students, as for the rest of the global population, 2020 was a year of hard decisions and sacrifices, but also of resilience and determination.
“Employment for our students was a struggle of managing home and life priorities in the midst of the chaos we have seen in the last year,” said Donna Reed, director of the IU Southeast Career Development Center (CDC). “What these numbers do show is the value of their education and the tenacity of each and every student in a drive toward their futures.
Working in tandem with the IU Southeast Office of Institutional Research to collect the data for this year’s report, the CDC had to overcome reduced in-person data collection opportunities. But students and employers proved helpful in providing digital information regarding employment.
The three top employers of IU Southeast graduates are Norton Healthcare, UPS and Greater Clark County Schools.
Reed notes that while the past year has been challenging on the work front, the current trends favor growth and agility. Online interviewing, onboarding and training have become more common, meaning that some IU Southeast graduates have joined companies without yet meeting representatives from those firms in person.
Our employers want employees, jobs are prevalent, and employers are competing in ways we have not seen in recent history,” Reed said. “Now is the time for people to start or scale-up in careers, and take advantage of the salaries and benefits plans being offered.”
According to Reed, the CDC takes the survey data very seriously, and uses it to shape programming. The CDC also shares it with faculty and student services offices to help them track the value of their efforts.
“This data collection holds us accountable for the value we represent in each student’s life as well as our community,” Reed said. “Knowing that our students are achieving their dreams and their goals helps substantiate the value of college degrees as well as the quality of programming IU Southeast offers.”