Modelling the migration patterns of radiography undergraduates

The rationale for this study is a follow up to the annual survey of the SCoR 'Analysis of Students and Recent Graduates'. Whilst the survey asks many pertinent questions relating to student experiences and pressures during their training it does not allow an assessment of migration patterns. The UCAS system enables applicants to apply to up to five Universities and most take advantage of this. Universities spend a great deal of time and money recruiting students but there is little evidence of large scale modelling to consider the value. This research therefore aims to compare a candidates home town with their University of study and first post workplace in order to assess geographical migration patterns.The evidence suggests that the population of University cities is likely to grow because whilst still conceptually they lose around twenty four per cent of students at the entry point to Higher Education, a small proportion return home, numbers are boosted by the seventy per cent of graduates who stay in the area. An implication for clinical practice and the NHS is that recruitment of newly qualified Radiographers is likely to continue to be more difficult in areas remote from University cities. This situation is exacerbated in areas where the number of graduates per University is far less than the number of available jobs in the area. In terms of student recruitment, Universities could seemingly be justified in focussing on local recruitment as this provides the dominate proportion of their cohorts.