Higher Education and Labour Market Entry: The Differing Experiences of Northern Irish Protestants and Catholics

Author(s): R.L. Miller, R. D. Osborne, R.J. Cormack and A.P. Williamson
Document Type: Report
Year: 1990
Publication Title: Research Paper No 1
Publisher: Centre for Policy Research, University of Ulster
Place of Publication: Belfast
Subject Area(s): Education, Employment, Equality Issues
Client Group(s): Students, Graduates, Employees


Background to the Research

  • This study explores the labour market positions of Protestant and Catholic graduates. It follows the career experiences of Protestants and Catholics who entered higher education in Northern Ireland in 1979, and reports on levels of graduate employment and earnings.

Research Approach

  • This study follows a cohort of 1979 Northern Irish entrants to higher education from selection of their 'A'-level subjects through their degree courses to the early years of their post-degree experience. All individuals who received a higher education grant from one of the Education and Library Boards in Northern Ireland for the first time in the academic year 1979/80 were included in the study. This cohort of entrants to higher education were surveyed by post in 1980 when they were first year students and then again in 1985/86 several years after most had finished their degrees. The analyses reported here concentrate on data from the second survey. Multivariate loglinear analyses were carried out in order to control for the high level of interaction of religion with other variables.

Main findings

  • Protestant graduates are more likely to have obtained 'degree-level' jobs, while Catholics are more likely to be unemployed or in work that could be considered menial for graduates. However this differential labour market position is largely due to the subject studied at college - as well as a number of other factors.

  • Northern Irish Catholics living in Britain do no better than their counterparts in Northern Ireland.

  • There is little evidence to suggest that active discrimination against Catholic graduates is occurring in Northern Ireland.

  • However even though it is not 'religion' that brings about disadvantage it is still true that Catholic graduates tend to be disproportionately disadvantaged. The students most likely to succeed tend to be from middle-class backgrounds, achieve good 'A'-level results in science or technology and continue on in the same subjects at degree level. This group tend to be male and Protestant. In contrast, the students least likely to succeed tend to be from working-class backgrounds, with lower 'A'-level grades in non-science subjects and then continue on in the same manner in higher education. This group are disproportionately female and Catholic.

  • The most realistic way of redressing this imbalance is to influence choice of subjects studied at (Catholic) schools and subsequently at college.
 

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