City University of London has appointed a new Director of Careers and Skills Development. The University is already ranked 10th in the UK for employability of its graduates (source: The Times Good University Guide 2011) and for graduate starting salaries (source: The Sunday Times University Guide 2011). This is a statement of enduring commitment to its students.
Students today enter university with the baggage of top-up fees and a catalogue of bleak graduate employment statistics inscribed across their foreheads. They know that they will find it hard to get a graduate job. They know that they will be amassing a huge amount of debt. They know that it is doubtful that they will be able to start paying this off immediately. City understands that universities have a certain obligation to their students, and that certain university careers services (an office with a few dog-eared leaflets and a secretary who'd rather be anywhere else) fail theirs.
Furthermore, City has recognised that students do not disaffiliate with their university as soon as they toss their mortar boards in the air and that therefore a university should have more interest in its members' next steps. The creation of this position demonstrates that the university is taking some responsibility for those next steps.
Critics might complain that City University is commercialising its education by transforming it into a graduate production line, a soulless institution populated by young and ambitious drones. This is an appraisal that Gary Argent, the new Director, who has spent several years working as Business Operations Manager with the Association of Graduate Recruiters, acknowledges, but objects to, insisting that he still prioritises academia: "The new landscape of student fees and the challenging graduate job market will mean that students will be even more focused on the need to develop their employability skills, while not losing sight of the importance of a qualification which is founded on high academic standards."
While Argent appears to find it difficult to evade corporate language ("making the University an institution which is a pleasure to do business with for graduate employers large and small"), and this trading metaphor is not the kindest to City's vision, it remains true that this step is one that other universities ought to observe closely. City produces strong graduates who are paid accordingly, and this position will concretise this reputation and the support processes available for City's students and graduates.
Phoebe, GRB Journalist
