Recent alumni participated in this qualitative study to determine factors that influence alumni engagement. Each participant completed a pre-interview survey to determine their student involvement scores, which were grouped into three groups -- high, medium, and low engagement. I created interview questions and a protocol. Following the completion…

This study examined the post-graduation employment location preferences of international students preparing to participate in the Optional Practical Training (OPT) program in the United States. An exploratory survey asked international students in their final semesters at three midwestern public universities to indicate their employment location…

The goal of the current study was to explore how psychology majors decide whether to enter the workforce or attend graduate school. Thirty-two psychology alumni, including 22 women and 10 men ("M"age = 28.88 years, SD = 5.25) participated in semi-structured interviews about their ending time as an undergraduate and figuring out next…

The mobility of the highly skilled, summarized as brain drain, brain circulation and brain gain, remains a contentious issue for policy. Even so, the evidence base to inform policy remains poor. This gap is of particular importance to policymakers in countries that experience brain drain. This paper reports on the findings of a tracer study of…

Undergraduate capstone courses in sociology are designed to integrate students' knowledge in the discipline and to culminate the classroom experience with field application. Are capstones achieving these goals in a durable way? Although the short-term outcomes of capstone courses have been researched, fewer studies have documented the long-term…

The feedback between vocational education and training (VET) and the labour market can provide important input for the review and renewal of qualifications. A feedback loop that is based on learning outcomes helps provide deeper insights into what is required on the labour market, what is offered in training provisions and assessed at the end of a…

This study reviews the traditional culminating graduate student experiences, theses, and comprehensive exams, as well as a newer, more professionally relevant option, applied research projects. We conceptualize applied projects as student-led, client-connected, hands-on, experiential projects that address a real-world communication problem or…

Through the analysis of alumni survey data from three graduating cohorts, this study examined the relationships between ideological interaction, college outcomes, and career achievements and explored factors that helped to promote interaction across ideological boundaries on college campuses. Its findings show that compared with less interactive…

Tracing graduates has become an imperative for higher education institutions much more during the pandemic. This tracer determined the employment and employability status of the 2019 BSE graduates and identified the competencies they adequately acquired and deemed vital for work. It used descriptive design, and data were collected from the 103…