Graduate employment as a performance indicator: Measurements, infrastructures and their effects on higher education

Empirical material Three Danish universities: humanities + one degree programme The Danish Accreditation Institution Interviews Quality Executives + Degree Programme Leaders / Department Leaders Chief Executive involved in developing accreditation criteria Observations Performance indicator processing meetings - Document materials Action plans, status reports, data packages Accreditation guides

Theoretical framing of ‘phenomenon’ ‘Phenomena’ as the primary ontological unit: entangled nature of the world Source: Karen Barad (2007): “Meeting the Universe Halfway”, pp. 135-148, 333-337

Theoretical framing of ‘phenomenon’ ‘Phenomena’ as the primary ontological unit: entangled nature of the world Measurements: Measurements understood as an ‘apparatus’ = constitutive part of phenomena Source: Karen Barad (2007): “Meeting the Universe Halfway”, pp. 135-148, 333-337

Theoretical framing of ‘phenomenon’ ‘Phenomena’ as the primary ontological unit: entangled nature of the world Measurements: Measurements understood as an ‘apparatus’ = constitutive part of phenomena Causality: Causalities understood as produced by the apparatus of measurement Source: Karen Barad (2007): “Meeting the Universe Halfway”, pp. 135-148, 333-337

Theoretical framing of ‘phenomenon’ Measurements and causality: Cause Measured object Marking Effect Measuring agency Marked i.e. degree programme i.e. performance indicator

Phenomenon 1: ‘The Job-preparing university’ Degree programmes measured as graduate employment Causal idea of link between degree programmes and graduate employment Changes in degree programmes (cause) leads to changes in graduate employment (effect) Degree programme Employment

Phenomenon 2: ‘The quality assuring university’ Degree programmes measured as capacity to monitor and produce actions Causal idea of link between actions and performance indicator A low performance indicator (problem) demands more or more comprehensive actions (solutions) The right actions (cause) lead to an improved performance indicator (effect) Performance indicator Action plans

(Interview with chief executive, May 2017) “…if you had an issue with high unemployment in 2012, and know that you had a problem, then you had a meeting on it, where you changed an optional subject. But then the unemployment is still high, and in 2013 you see the same picture, and again in 2014, and nothing really… there are no new initiatives from those who are responsible. Then we would say, from this process consideration, that the issue has maybe not been met in a sufficiently serious manner.” (Interview with chief executive, May 2017)

Entangled, linear causal ideas Employment Degree programme Performance indicator Action plans

Entangled, linear causal ideas Employment Degree programme Performance indicator Quality system as infrastructure for transportation /translation of graduate employment numbers Action plans

Non-linear measurement Employment Degree programme Performance indicator Other important factors affecting employment besides the degree programme Action plans

Non-linar action planning Employment Degree programme Performance indicator Other important factors affecting employment besides the degree programme Are we the right people to formulate the actions? Other factors than the performance indicator affecting the action planning Action plans What actions will have the wanted effect?

(Interview with degree programme leader, May 2017) “It may seem a bit defensive, but the exercise is to implement initiatives that are possible to fulfil, right? Because the reality is that the resources are not infinite […] We can implement things that the Faculty also think is a good idea, or that are expected […] to work, right? And at the same time, it has to be initiatives that the group of colleagues can solve, right? […] So, it is about finding those initiatives that are realistic but still trustworthy as initiatives to solve, for example, an unemployment problem, right? And that I find to be a particularly great challenge.” (Interview with degree programme leader, May 2017)

Action plans: Example 1 Substantial curricular development Developing a new track within the degree programme, aimed at a different labour market, by changing the balance between subject matter elements Musicology: High school teacher (old) Music culture industry (new) Causal idea: The curricular content and structure affects employability

Action plans: Example 2 Supporting quick graduate labour market entry Developing curricular or extra-curricular activities, teaching students/graduates how to apply for a job, communicate their competences, do networking, and so on… Career Management Skills programme: Embedded in ECTS? Career guides as teachers (rather than researchers) Causal idea: Career skills / salesmanship affect employability

Conclusion The performance indicator on graduate employment entangles the causalities embedded in ‘the job-preparing university’ and ‘the quality assuring university’ The infrastructure of quality assurance structures the workings of the graduate employment numbers into a linear causality Non-linear features: Graduate employment measure depends on much more than the degree programme Chosen actions depend on more than the causal idea Thus, the use of a graduate employment performance indicator in some cases leads to actions aimed at quick-fixing numbers rather than substantial long-term curricular development