While UW-Madison set a new university record last year by conferring more than 10,000 undergraduate, graduate and doctorate degrees, a poor economy could make it difficult for students to translate their degrees into jobs.
In the 2010-11 academic year, the university distributed a total of 10,099 degrees: 6,579 bachelor’s, 2,105 master’s, 754 research doctorates and 661 professional and clinical doctorates.
“These indicators suggest and support the importance of higher education to our state and national economy,” Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs Paul DeLuca said in a statement. “UW–Madison continues to perform at the highest level.”
Despite DeLuca’s optimism, economics professor Christopher Taber said a bad economy could make it difficult for students to find a job after graduating.
“It’s a really tough job market and the unemployment rate for recent college graduates is high,” Taber said in an e-mail. “Unemployment fell a bit recently, so hopefully it will pick up, but we have been saying that for awhile.”
According to Taber, the unemployment rate is 8.6 percent overall, but only 4.4 percent for four-year college graduates. While this indicates college graduates fare better in the job market, he said the unemployment rate is higher for young workers regardless of academic achievement.
Jocelyn Milner, the university’s associate provost and director for academic planning and analysis, said she speculates last year’s increase of 200 master’s degrees came in response to a bad economy. She said after surveying graduating undergraduate students last year, 28 percent said they were planning to enroll in professional or graduate school.
“Students seem to be … interested in coming back for a master’s degree,” Milner said. “[This] is consistent with national trends that that’s the way people are seeking to recession-proof their careers.”
While Taber said individuals can find jobs with almost any degree, he said “more practical” pre-professional majors such as business and engineering are currently more valuable for landing a job.
Milner came to a similar conclusion, saying the schools of business and engineering have both shown some of the strongest records of employment after graduating.
Dani Golub contributed to this report.
