Motives behind the mobility of university graduates – A study of three German universities

Sidonia von Proff, Matthias Duschl and Thomas Brenner ()

Review of Regional Research: Jahrbuch für Regionalwissenschaft, 2017, vol. 37, issue 1, No 2, 39-58

Abstract: 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.

Keywords: Graduate mobility; Regional labor mobility; Universities; Hesse; Mobilität von Hochschulabsolventen; Arbeitsmobilität; Hochschulen; Hessen (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I23 J61 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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DOI: 10.1007/s10037-016-0107-2

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