01 August 2011 World-first study underway at Lincoln University

More than 600 Lincoln University final-year students have been invited to take part in a world-first study of graduates.

The Graduate Longitudinal Study New Zealand (GLSNZ) is being commissioned by Universities New Zealand -Te Pōkai Tara - and involves surveying 14,000 final-year students across New Zealand. The study will explore students’ lifestyles, employment, projected career development, health and well-being. As a longitudinal study, the participants will be invited to take part in follow-up surveys in two, five and 10 years’ time.

The study aims to determine the ongoing impact of a university education on New Zealand graduates’ lives. The breadth of questions and length of time the study follows graduates into the future are the features which make the study a world first.

Lincoln Vice-Chancellor Professor Roger Field says “This university is New Zealand’s specialist land-based university and we know our graduates land jobs all over the world, which will add an interesting aspect to this study. It’ll be interesting to see what the study reveals over the next decade or two.”

The GLSNZ study is being carried out by the internationally-respected National Centre for Lifecourse Research (NCLR), a multi-university group headquartered at the University of Otago. This centre is also responsible for the world-renowned Dunedin Multi-disciplinary Study, which follows the lives of about 1000 people from birth to now (the participants are around 40 years old).

Centre Co-Director Professor Richie Poulton is leading the GLSNZ study. He says the survey will provide the most detailed picture to date of what actually happens to graduates after they leave university.

“We will learn a great deal about how their lives unfold,” he says.  “For instance, how careers develop, the university-related influences which have the greatest impact on employment success, when they begin to have families, where they live, the state of their finances, their health and their social relationships.

“We will also learn about less tangible aspects of their post-university life, such as how their values, attitudes and behaviours evolve over time, as well as what contribution to broader society they make.”

Results of the initial baseline survey will be released in February next year.