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Chapter 1 - A closer look at student outcomes

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The role of field of study in graduate outcomes

Student labour market outcomes are in part influenced by the features of the credential(s) they are working to obtain as well as the field of study of their program. As a result, the relationship between credential performance and field of study deserves particular attention. It is important to disentangle the topics students study from the actual credential they are pursuing, as the level of demand for the student’s field may have substantial impacts on their labour market outcomes. If field of study was not accounted for in analyzing the student’s labour market outcomes, these impacts could be falsely attributed as being due to the credential they pursued. However, if certain fields of study are more commonly associated with certain credentials, the field of study pursued by students working to obtain the credential could be considered an intrinsic feature of the credential itself. Therefore, we present results which are both adjusted and unadjusted for field of study, to account for each potential lens of credential analysis.

Box 1 provides an overview of how field of study is captured in the GOSS data. There are four broad occupational divisions: Applied Arts, Business, Health, and Technology. Each of these occupational divisions is further subdivided into narrower occupational clusters. Box 2 provides an overview of how field of study is captured in the OUGS data.

Box 1 - College program occupational divisions and occupational clusters

Box 2 - University program classifications

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- Last Modified: 28/5/15 8:51:00 AM