Background to the Research

• Post-compulsory education is an important factor in the economy as it contributes in terms of skills, research and development and higher wages. Evidence suggests that participation rates in further/ higher education in NI is higher than in GB, yet the number of available places in NI is lower than in GB.
  

Research Approach

• The researchers set out to examine the relationship between education and labour market outcomes in NI and GB. They also sought to explore the rate of returns to NI post education and compare the relative implications for labour market outcomes where individuals worked either in NI or GB.
• Data regarding earnings, employment, characteristics and educational background from the GB GHS & the FES and their NI equivalents the CHS and the NI FES from 1985/6-1994/5 were used.
• Analysis was based on a pooled sample of the GHS of 27,587 working men and 25,352 working women from GB, and a pooled sample of the CHS 8,435 working men and 9,452 working women from NI. The HENI (1992) was also used in order to track the labour market outcomes of 1,761 male graduates and 1,674 female graduates.
  

Main Findings

Returns to Education

• The return to education in NI is higher than in GB - 6% for men and 10% for women in GB compared with 8% for men and 12% for women in NI.
• NI-born individuals find post compulsory education more expensive or difficult to obtain. This supports the case for encouraging and facilitating higher levels of education participation in NI - this could be based on financial criteria.
• The largest differences in returns between GB and NI were return to GCSE relative to no qualifications. This means that attention should be given to encouraging higher levels of age participation in NI and to those in the workforce with no or lower levels of qualifications to enable them to acquire additional education.
• The return to education is higher for Catholic men relative to Protestant men and for Catholic women relative to Protestant women - but these differences are small.

Education, Migration and Labour Market Returns

• The probability of studying in GB rather than in NI is slightly higher for women than for men, and somewhat higher for Protestants than for Catholics. The proportion returning to NI post education in GB has remained stable during the period 1979-1985 and those who are going to return do so quite quickly after graduation.
• Better class of degree outcomes led to higher earnings in NI (but not significantly so in GB); women got paid less than men (a differential of 11% for those whose higher education was in GB and 8% for those whose higher education was in NI). There is a large wage premium associated with living in GB (about 26%).
• Wages are higher for NI graduates than GB graduates - by a significant 31% for women and an insignificant 5% for men. This suggests that (at least for women) NI Higher Education institutions generate more value added than higher education received at GB institutions.
• Internal migration from NI does respond to the relative sizes of unemployment rates and higher education availability. The effect appears larger for women than for men. There is statistically significant evidence that men are more likely to migrate, for unobservable reasons and are more likely to have high wages relative to those born in GB.