Post by Louise N

Yesterday I was challenged by Jake Ganymede, Imperial College London on a number of points regarding a post focused on The University of Manchester's undergraduate placement initiative (see comments.) "Naming the problem & offering a vague alternative is not the same as solving it." So here is a possible solution. First I disagree with his point "Embedding employers inside universities still requires the same massive coordination, quality assurance & compensation structures as external placements,” & have writen on an alternative more feasable model in University World News & can illustrate how it could work in practice with cross faculty projects involving hundreds if not thousands of students. Take Shell in Malaysia. While we immediately associate Shell with engineering & oil & gas, the company also employs thousands of professionals across finance, law, sustainability, environmental management, marketing, supply chain, data analytics & corporate affairs. Engineering students could work on energy transition or infrastructure projects, business school students could engage with Shell’s upstream & downstream finance operations, while law & environmental science students could contribute to ESG, sustainability. Looking in contrast at the charity sector Cancer Research UK (CRUK) UK. Medical students & bioscientists could contribute to research projects linked to cancer treatment & prevention, while psychology, marketing, communications & business students could work on awareness campaigns, fundraising strategy, donor engagement & behavioural change initiatives. His second point "Your pivot to international PG students, while a valid concern ... Manchester's announcement was about UG placements, so using it to indict the university's treatment of master's students from overseas shifts the goalposts without offering evidence that Manchester is uniquely worse than any other UK institution." Manchester is not unique, no UK university is adequetly supporting the employability of their international students, particually those returning home following their UK degree. HESA has never provided Non-EU outcomes data to enable universities to track their international students that return home, understand their destinations & support future returning cohorts. Asia Careers Group SDN BHD, has now collected over 120,000 individual graduate outcomes since 2015, data available to all UK universities, with a minimum sample of 1000 graduates that have returned to major souce markets - China, India, ASEAN & MENA. https://lnkd.in/dkMfkqtE Asia Careers Group SDN BHD - Investing in International Futures Duncan Ivison Yvette Cooper MP Shabana Mahmood MP Jacqui Smith Bridget Phillipson Graduate Futures Institute British Council BUILA Department for Business and Trade Department for Education Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) UK Home Office Higher Education Policy Institute Jisc Office for Students UCAS UKCISA Universities UK Universities UK International