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Graduate researchers constitute an important part of academia. However, they often feel disconnected from their peers due to the individual nature of graduate research. Research has suggested that feeling part of a community enhances the student experience and fosters a range of soft skills that complement the technical skills developed through research. When supported by their institutions, graduate researchers can contribute to creating a nurturing and stimulating environment for themselves and their peers in various ways, one of which includes developing and leading community-building projects driven by their needs. In this chapter, we reflect on our experience as graduate researchers who designed, developed and delivered professional development projects for our peers, with the aim to build a stronger intellectual community at our institution. Additionally, we offer practical guidance for graduate researchers who wish to develop their own project to strengthen graduate research communities.

This exploratory research aims to unravel how Chinese international students form their decisions regarding the school-to-work transition (sometimes also referred to as the university-to-work transition) when studying abroad.

The authors use the concepts of school-to-work transition and cultural approaches to investigate how Chinese graduate students make career decisions to navigate the school-to-work transition in the context of international mobility. The authors' empirical study is based on 30 semi-structured interviews conducted with Chinese graduate students studying in the Netherlands.

The authors discovered four patterns with two major subgroups among Chinese students studying in the universities in the Netherlands based on their initial intentions: return-return, open-return, open-stay and stay-stay. These patterns made sense when navigating the school-to-work transition: participants experienced varied international experiences, cultural perceptions and acknowledgment influences when enhancing employability and shaping their career decisions. Participants in the return-return and stay-stay groups indicated strong resilience and consistency in achieving their goals and strongly focused on long-term objectives. However, participants' open-return decision demonstrated a thoughtful alignment of personal goals and knowledge of the possible beneficial influence they may have in their home country. Open-stay participants utilized the overseas study opportunity to finalize their decisions and increase their employability in the local labor market, thereby creating a transition from university to work in the host country.

The authors highlight the way Chinese graduate students manage their international experience and provide novel insights into the role played by the cultural characteristics of their home country and host country.

Flatter organisational structures and nonlinear career trajectories mean intrinsic value and subjective career success are increasingly important for motivating, guiding and rewarding contemporary workers. While objective measures of career success have been well explored, more research is needed to understand the dimensions of subjective career success, their relative importance to graduates and potential variations by personal factors. This is critical for supporting graduates’ transition into work and for organisations to attract and retain graduates amid global talent shortages.

Building on assertions of the power to understand how what one seeks in a career affects career achievement, this study investigated the importance and achievement of subjective career success among 324 recent graduates from two Australian universities.

Results include a notable emphasis on financial security and work-life balance, particularly among mature individuals, underscoring the value of adaptable work arrangements. Results suggest shifting priorities, with reduced importance placed on opportunities for innovation and assisting others, potentially indicating a move from collective to more individualised goals. Distinct graduate profiles emerged, showcasing diverse priorities and achievements in subjective career success, spanning from “humanistic” to “self-made” success.

Results underscore the significance of higher education embedding program-wide career development plans across the curriculum, including value-based assessments, labour market analyses and career planning and review processes. Comprehensively supporting students in career development will empower them to explore, understand and actively pursue their career goals in alignment with their values and motivations, enhancing their person-organisation fit, career satisfaction and organisational commitment.

Young graduates in Morocco are encountering an increasingly challenging labor market environment. Confronted with intense competition, job insecurity, and unclear career trajectories, many find themselves in low-skilled positions despite possessing relevant qualifications. This issue is particularly pronounced among vocational training graduates, who experience professional downgrading at a rate three times higher (33.6%) compared to their peers from general education (11.6%) (HCP, 2018). Our study aims to investigate professional downgrading among young vocational training graduates in Morocco, focusing on the factors contributing to this phenomenon and identifying potential solutions to address it.

Our study is based on the insertion and career path survey conducted by the Department of Professional Training with graduates of professional training programs in Morocco. For this edition, the survey was conducted in 2020, encompassing all 31,498 graduates of the 2016 professional training programs. The Heckman self-selection model is employed to analyze and explore various dimensions of downgrading. Factors such as gender, age, marital status, parental education, and the choice of vocational training field are scrutinized to understand their influence on downgrading.

The study reveals several key findings: Women exhibit a lower probability of professional downgrading compared to men. Young graduates are more vulnerable to downgrading, emphasizing the necessity for career guidance and mentorship programs to facilitate their entry into the job market. Marital status plays a role, with married individuals having a higher likelihood of downgrading. Parental education, particularly that of mothers, proves critical in preventing subjective downgrading of vocational training graduates, highlighting the need for adult literacy and education programs. The effectiveness of the National Agency for the Promotion of Employment and Competencies (ANAPEC) programs in preventing downgrading among vocational training graduates is questioned, suggesting the need for program revisions tailored to this population. The choice of vocational training field significantly impacts downgrading, with graduates of technical training programs experiencing advantages. This emphasizes the importance of diversifying training fields and aligning them with market demands.

This study provides valuable insights into the phenomenon of professional downgrading among young vocational training graduates in Morocco. The findings emphasize the need for targeted policy interventions. Recommendations include supporting young graduates, reassessing programs offered by the ANAPEC, and enhancing technical training to better align with the evolving demands of the labor market.

This viewpoint aims to provide an overview of graduate employability in Lebanon from the perspective of the Dean of Olayan School of Business at the American University of Beirut, who is a reputable academic leader heading a world-ranked business school. The discussion also looks at the external factors that affect graduate employability in Lebanon with direct references to the Covid-19 pandemic and the economic crisis.

Through conversation with the Dean of a prominent business school in Lebanon, this viewpoint discusses several topics pertaining to the concept of graduate employability.

To boost graduate employability the focus should be on developing the curriculum, engaging with the alumni network, exploiting the board of governors and building on the school’s reputation and legacy.

Crises do offer new opportunities. Covid-19 pandemic has prepared employers to accept the idea of remote working, which has helped in boosting graduate employability in Lebanon.

The purpose of this study was to examine how two socio-historical contexts within the United States, the Movement for Black Lives and the COVID-19 pandemic, informed approaches to improving racial climate in science, technology, mathematics and engineering (STEM) graduate education.

The authors used a general qualitative inquiry research study design to conduct focus groups (n = 121) with graduate students, postdoctoral fellows and faculty members from across STEM disciplines as well as administrators whose work involves STEM graduate students. Participants were from two US institutions involved in a National Science Foundation networked improvement community seeking to create inclusive environments for STEM graduate students.

This study demonstrates how these socio-historical contexts illuminated and amplified on-going efforts to address racial climate for graduate students in US-based graduate education. In response to these events, STEM faculty devoted time that otherwise might have gone to purely technical or scientific endeavors to addressing racial climate. However, some faculty members remain hesitant to address racial climate and efforts appear to have further waned over time. While diversity, inclusion and equity efforts came to the forefront of the collective consciousness during this time, participants worry that these efforts are not sustainable, particularly without support from faculty and administrators.

The findings from this study will inform efforts to improve racial climate in STEM graduate programs.

This study fills an identified need to capture how socio-historical contexts, like the US Movement for Black Lives and the COVID-19 pandemic, have influenced approaches to improving racial climate in STEM graduate programs.

This study aims to explore a specific case of the alleged mismatch between higher education and employability by investigating long-term work life outcomes for graduates from a small university college in Sweden, and the associations between these outcomes and the graduates’ social background, academic achievements and study approach in terms of labour market orientation and agency in studying.

The study is based on longitudinal data from initially 2,072 students from bachelor’s degree programmes in 2007–2012. They were surveyed continuously throughout the programmes and then in 2020. Classification and regression tree (CRT) analyses were conducted to identify which subgroups within the population based on the independent variables (e.g. students’ background and study orientation) that were associated with the dependent variables (work life outcomes).

Neither graduates’ social background nor their academic achievement and study approach was associated with employment rate or income. Some dimensions of high labour market orientation and agency in studying were positively associated with holding a senior position at work. Several aspects of high levels of agency and labour market orientation were positively associated with subjective work life outcomes, such as for example perceived mastery of work.

This study contributes to further understanding of alleged mismatches between higher education and employability by using longitudinal data from a university college in a country with low graduate unemployment rates and low earnings dispersions.

The purpose of this paper is to integrate general strain theory and procedural justice in the context of research misconduct in university settings.

Drawing on media accounts and past research, the authors present data on the financial costs of research misconduct to universities and identify graduate school processes as a possible source of strain may lead to misconduct. Relevant research on procedural justice in organizational settings is also examined.

The available literature suggests that the use of procedurally just practices will help reduce strain, and in doing so, potentially prevent research misconduct in university settings. The authors present an integrated theoretical model that can be tested in future empirical studies of research misconduct and other forms of white-collar crime in universities. Directions for future theoretically informed research are discussed, along with recommendations for graduate program administrators.

Research misconduct causes significant financial and reputational costs to universities. While past research focuses on mentoring and training for preventing misconduct by graduate students, this study argues that the use of fair evaluations and other procedurally just processes is also important.

Graduate students employed in graduate teaching and research assistantship positions have a unique experience of the institution because of their status as student-employees. Graduate assistants (GAs) face specific challenges around their well-being as they navigate various relationships and environments throughout their educational trajectory. The purpose of this study is to examine the specific workplace challenges GAs experience and their overall effect on GA wellbeing.

This research study examines graduate assistant responses from 12 US research universities to the Faculty Survey of student Engagement for Graduate student Instructors survey. This study’s analysis examined the open-ended responses (n = 493) at the end of the survey that asked participants for additional comments regarding their departmental and/or institutional experiences. Three waves of coding were implemented by the authors to identify common themes and areas of concern on GA working conditions.

The findings led to the creation of a concept map on GA working conditions that include three main components: contextual factors, stress and well-being and competing tensions. Within each component are subthemes related to social identity, funding, campus climate, time and priority concerns and assistantship structure and support. The map demonstrates the enmeshed connection across areas.

Findings suggest institutional investments through programming, system-level changes and interpersonal support to improve GA working conditions and their well-being.

Research on GA experiences with working conditions and well-being in a US context is limited. This study is valuable because many graduate students who occupy graduate assistantships are asking for increased pay and benefits at their institution. Graduate assistantship labor organizing is occurring alongside institutions’ focus on improving health outcomes for graduate students.

The article aims to describe the role of training and examines the impact on the wages of university and college graduates.

We use nationwide administrative data on university and college graduates in 2019. The population includes 1.3 million observations, of which 222,000 (∼16%) received training after graduation from an educational institution (from July 2019 to 2022). We used OLS and the “difference-in-differences” methods to estimate the returns to training. Estimates obtained using the DID method turned out to be several times smaller because they consider unobserved characteristics (abilities).

We obtained several key findings. First, the participation of graduates in training is high, despite their recent education. Second, undergoing training is conditional on the existence of wage returns. The results show a wage premium of 17.8% (OLS method) and 2.0% (DID method). Third, graduates from nonselective universities (with low state exam score) try to participate more actively in training to acquire missing knowledge and skills. The wage premium for graduates from nonselective universities is 19.1% (OLS method) and 5.1% (DID method). Fourth, there is a high return to training for graduates from socially relevant fields (education and healthcare), where training is regular and mandatory.

This paper is one of the first to estimate the involvement and returns to training for graduates using nationwide administrative data in Russia.