A Case of HOW you Do it, Versus WHAT you DO

How are colleges of business supporting the post-graduation outcomes of their students?

This year I circulated a survey to over 200 AACSB-accredited colleges of business. My goal was to collect baseline data on the career and professional development curricular offerings and programmatic services business schools are offering to their undergraduate students. Over 40 schools participated in my survey and the results can be found here.

So what did I learn?

Size matters more than location.  Employment results for schools located away from business and industry (college towns and rural locations) had almost identical employment rates as schools located in urban, metropolitan, and suburban locations. Larger schools (more than 5000 undergraduate students) reported higher employment rates than smaller (less than 1000) and mid-sized schools which had similar reported rates of employment. 

Simply offering classes and services isn’t enough. The self-reported six-month employment rate for schools with career classes, schools with “in-house” career services, and all respondents was virtually identical. 

Classes and services drive behaviors. The way you structure a class or decide what services you’ll offer DOES seem to have an impact on employment. For example, schools with career classes that required graded extra-curricular activity in their classes had higher reported employment rates than those who didn’t have that requirement in their classes. They also reported more diverse activities and better attendance at college events.

There’s a lot more information to come from this survey, but I hope this summary of my initial findings will help those of you who are interested!

Lonny

Lonny J Butcher is an Instructor in UCFs College of Business. In this role he facilitates four classes every semester with a total enrollment of over 4000 students per semester.