Literature Search Findings

Background Information for Project KEEP US Student Researchers

From: Brenda Dow, Vincent McCabe, Inc. (Client Contact)

To: PRL 315 “Public Relations Research” Class, Jean Vincent’s section

Date: September 27, 2004

The client has identified the following related studies which are summarized here and available in full (except as noted below) for reference.

Greater Boston

Study: “Preventing a Brain Drain: Talent Retention in Greater Boston” (October 2003) by The Boston Consulting Group: http://www.bostonchamber.com/html/policy/rdf.pdf

Focus: Set out to answer three questions:

Does Greater Boston have a problem retaining graduates?
What issues are most important to graduates in deciding whether they will stay in the Boston area?
What are the most promising opportunities to improve Greater Boston’s ability to retain its graduates?

Respondents:

2,100 students from 10 area schools who graduated in 2003 with degrees ranging from the associate’s to doctoral levels (conducted immediately before or after graduation) and 1,300 alumni from two Boston-area colleges who graduated between 5 and 15 years ago, and a number of Boston-area employers.

Findings:

Stated reasons for staying or leaving often don’t match actual reasons.
- Both stated and actual importance high: “Feel of the city” (good place to settle down, good place for young people, good things to do, “happening” place, rich cultural life, variety of attractions, interesting neighborhoods), job opportunity, geography, diversity.
- Importance overstated (cite as important but don’t act on it): Public transportation, affordability, traffic.
- Not important, low actual influence: Owning a car, education for children.
- Subconscious decision driver (Not important, high actual influence): Housing.
Success in keeping graduates varies across job categories.
Most popular destinations are even more popular among those who’ve never lived in them.
Graduates break into eight meaningful segments; five of them (comprising 80% of the total) are making an active decision about where to live and, therefore, are considered “avoidable departures”: Job Driven, Practical (affordability, housing), “I Do What I Want,” Family Driven, Generally Content.
Reasons to stay or leave have not seemed to change over time; [satisfaction levels with (Boston regarding) different decision-drivers has changed over time, with half of those staying eventually moving elsewhere within two years].

Greater Baltimore Area

Study: The Baltimore Collegetown Network’s first Survey of Baltimore Area College Students (announced August 20, 2003 – not available on the web; posted on Blackboard; press release at http://www.colltown.org/asp/news_detail.asp?newsID=1)

Focus: Uncover perceptions of Baltimore among the area’s college students, with an emphasis on identifying how often students left campus, where they visited while off campus, and determining their needs.

Respondents: More than 1,500 students from the 13 participating colleges and universities responded via an online survey.

Findings:

o 25 percent of respondents want a better transportation system, including a Metro/Subway station and shuttle service that takes students to other local colleges and downtown Baltimore. Safety ranked as the second highest concern, with nearly 20 percent of respondents wanting a lower crime rate.

o When asked to reveal what factors are important in choosing a place to live, 45 percent of respondents felt that affordable and safe housing is most essential. Additional factors of high importance: diversity of people, large selection of restaurants, internship and post-graduation job opportunities, and outdoor recreation.

o While most students are not interested in staying in Baltimore, more than 40 percent know they want to live in a large metropolitan area.

Note: Graduate Student Study also conducted (spring 2004): http://www.surveymonkey.com/Report.asp?U=38451281606

Greater Philadelphia Area

Study: “Should I stay or should I go? Survey of Recent College Graduates” - A Knowledge Industry Partnership (KIP) Report (June 2004): http://www.kiponline.org/survey.pdf

Respondents: 2,550 graduates who attended college in the Greater Philadelphia area and graduated in spring or summer of 2003 via a web-based survey conducted in January 2004; 29 colleges from the region participated by contacting their graduates.

Findings:

o Contrary to conventional wisdom, 64 percent of all graduates remain in the region after college, with 86 percent of native Philadelphians staying.

o For every 10 students who graduate from high school in Philadelphia and go onto college, 4 students will end up residing elsewhere after college.

o 36 percent leave for reasons outside of the region’s control, while 25 percent leave for other reasons. Among this group “the explorers” (16 percent of all graduates; nearly 2/3 of the 25 percent) who are “not from here; not returning home” represent the best opportunity to impact.

o Four key areas impact whether college graduates decided to stay or to go: 1. Internships, 2. Academic Focus, 3. Personal Connection, 4. Practical Matters.

1. 64% who interned locally chose to stay; among the non-native segment, those who interned (42 percent) were twice as likely to remain after college as those who did not (20 percent).

2. Certain fields of study are far more likely to attract out-of-region students, and the academic focus for those non-native students most likely to stay is well-aligned with the region’s core strengths: Information technology, health sciences and visual and performing arts.

3. For native and non-native students, the higher they rated the region on various attributes ¾ these included arts and culture, entertainment and nightlife, strong minority community, diverse role models in visible positions, “a good place for young people” ¾ the more likely they stayed, and vice versa.

4. The biggest difference in opinion between those who stayed and those who left concerned the importance of affordability and housing. While those who stayed found cost of living and available housing very important, those who didn’t stay were largely indifferent to these two factors.

Greater Pittsburgh Area

Special%20Report%20Brain%20Drain.htm

Focus: The “notion that Pittsburgh's image is less than desirable,” an “argument … built from very little (if any) real data” and thus answer the questions: What do college students think of Pittsburgh? Does Pittsburgh have an image problem? Is Pittsburgh's image the reason they are leaving the city for other destinations?

Respondents: 595 undergraduates currently enrolled in local colleges and universities via intercept interviews: 55% are 17-20 years old, 40% are 21-25 and 5% are 26+; 36% are originally from Pittsburgh and 63% are not; and 19% are freshman, 19% sophomores, 30% juniors, 28% seniors and 2% graduate students.

Findings:

o Pittsburgh does not have an image problem, especially in the areas where the City has been purported to be lacking (nightlife, entertainment, etc.).

o Students rated Pittsburgh favorably in many quality of life areas, and those who are planning to stay have an even better perception.

o Students are not optimistic about finding a job in Pittsburgh.

o Less than one-in-five are definitely planning to stay in Pittsburgh after graduation, with slightly more native Pittsburghers saying they will stay.

Study: “Predictors of Desire To Leave Pittsburgh or Stay After Graduation: Surveys of University of Pittsburgh Undergraduates, 1991 – 2001” - Report by Bonka Boneva, Irene Frieze, and Susan B. Hansen, University of Pittsburgh (November 2002) [Note: URL not available; however, study available on Blackboard along with the other studies noted.]

Focus: The goal of this study is to better understand the association between personality factors and desire to leave or stay in Pittsburgh after graduation.

Report Summary: In a study of University of Pittsburgh undergraduate students, surveys of undergraduates administered between 1991 and 2001, the researchers “observed small but reliable effects of achievement, power and affiliation motivation on desires to leave the region after graduation. High achievers and highly power motivated students wanted to leave more than low achievers and low power motivated students, while high affiliation motivated students wanted to stay more than low affiliation motivated students. In the present study we further investigate the associations between these and other psychological factors and desire to leave the city or stay after graduation.”

Study: “Regional Internship Center Student Internship Survey” - Report 4, New Generations Program, Coro Center for Civic Leadership (February 2004): http://www.newgenerations.info/downloads/Regional_Internship_Center.pdf

Respondents: Approximately 4,000 students’ perceptions and experiences with internships from 27 schools in the Pittsburgh region.

Findings:

o Students with internship experience are more likely to consider staying in Pittsburgh after graduation than students without internship experience.

o Most students are interested in internships but many are not making the connections to get one.

o The three most important qualities of an internship: Learning a lot (over 70 percent), Having a good supervisor or mentor (over 45 percent), Making valuable contacts (over 40 percent) topped students’ priority list. Only 16 percent thought making money was very important.

o Summer is by far the best time for students to take an internship (86 percent).

Study: “The Experience: Employers & Internships” – Report 6, New Generations Program, Coro Center for Civic Leadership (July 2004): http://www.newgenerations.info/downloads/updatedNG6.pdf

Respondents: A random sample of 500 employers in five industry clusters: financial services, healthcare, hospitality/tourism, information technology, and manufacturing.

Findings: Only a third of employers surveyed use interns, yet those who do overwhelmingly report positive experiences and, overall, actively recruit interns who can implement existing knowledge of transferable skills over candidates with other specific, technical skills.

United States

Study: “Migration of the Young, Single, and College Educated: 1995 to 2000” - Census 2000 Special Reports (Issued November 2003): http://www.census.gov/prod/2003pubs/censr-12.pdf

Report Summary: Comparisons of the U.S. population, divided into five age brackets, regarding immigration, outmigration, net migration and net migration rates by states and major metropolitan areas.

Findings:

o Whether married or single [includes “widowed or divorced’], young people with a college education [“at least a bachelor’s degree”] were more likely to move than those without a college degree.

o Young, single, and college-educated adults represented a higher proportion of people migrating to central cities than to the suburbs or nonmetropolitan territory.

Study: “Leveraging Colleges and Universities for Urban Economic Growth: An Urban Action Agenda” - Study by the Initiative for a Competitive Inner City (ICIC) and CEOs for Cities (Spring 2002), Part I & II: http://ceosforcities.org/research/2002/leveraging_colleges/colleges_1.pdf and Part III: http://ceosforcities.org/research/2002/leveraging_colleges/colleges_2.pdf

Focus: “CEOs partnered with the Initiative for a Competitive Inner City (ICIC) on a national study of the impact of higher education on urban economies. This study introduces a strategic impact framework, by which the various aspects of that impact are organized and considered. It also features case studies and best practices in university partnerships ¾ including in-depth studies of Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) in Richmond and Columbia University in New York City. Specific action steps for urban leaders are also provided.”

Study: “Collaborative Efforts in Student Retention: A Snapshot of Best Practices Across the Nation” - A Knowledge Industry Partnership (KIP) Report compiled by George Smith, Campus Visit, Inc. (2003): http://www.kiponline.org/research_bestpractices.htm

Summary: A series of briefs regarding initiatives taken by various institutions in various locations across the United States, leveraging higher education, community and business partnerships.

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