Abstract
The mobility of university graduates is influenced by economic factors and individual attitudes. The paper at hand focuses on the motives and studies the location preferences that university graduates have while they search for jobs (instead of a survey after graduation) and the reasons for these location preferences. To this end, prospective graduates from three universities in Hesse, Germany, have been surveyed in 2012. From this detailed data, we find that a majority has preferred locations during job search, but graduates with a strong focus on job opportunities are more often spatially open. Graduates focusing on social ties search dominantly at familiar places. Big cities attract especially graduates valuing job opportunities or amenities. As found previously in other studies, prior migration increase the propensity to move again after graduation. Overall, there is a large potential to retain graduates in the university region: most students include the university region into the spatial scope of their job search.
Zusammenfassung
Die Mobilität von Hochschulabsolventen wird von wirtschaftlichen Faktoren und persönlichen Einstellungen beeinflusst. Das vorliegende Papier untersucht diese Einstellungen und welche Ortspräferenzen Hochschulabsolventen während ihrer Jobsuche haben (anstelle einer Umfrage nach Berufsbeginn). Auch die Gründe für die Präferenzen wurden abgefragt. Als Datengrundlage dient eine 2012 durchgeführte Umfrage unter angehenden Absolventen von drei hessischen Hochschulen. Die Mehrheit nennt konkrete Orte, an denen der Job gesucht wird. Wer sich stärker auf die Karriere konzentriert, ist eher räumlich offen oder sucht in den Großstädten. Diese ziehen auch Absolventen an, die einen Fokus auf Freizeitmöglichkeiten und kulturelles Angebot legen. Wie schon in früheren Studien gefunden wurde, sind Personen, die bereits einmal umgezogen sind, eher bereit zu einem weiteren Umzug. Da die meisten Studenten auch in der Hochschulregion suchen, ist ein großes Potential vorhanden, Absolventen an die Region zu binden.
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The data collection for this paper was funded by Regionalmanagement Mittelhessen GmbH (formerly MitteHessen e. V.).
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von Proff, S., Duschl, M. & Brenner, T. Motives behind the mobility of university graduates – A study of three German universities. Rev Reg Res 37, 39–58 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10037-016-0107-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10037-016-0107-2