Understanding MSc student experience and graduate pathways: An alumni survey for MSc Environmental Consultancy at UWE

The first alumni of the MSc Environment Consultancy course at the University of the West of England (UWE) are now ten years into their careers. This was an opportune time to gather their mature assessment of the course. We undertook an online survey of alumni, followed up with semistructured interviews to explore key themes. The main finding is very positive, namely that the course is working well in achieving the designed intention of being a bridge to an environmental consultancy career. The MSc was perceived by alumni, to be of value in obtaining a first post and in undertaking key aspects of those posts and subsequent posts in their career paths. The module which has shown most relevance to work is the Environmental Assessment module. Despite achieving excellent job outcomes, it was concerning to discover that 18% of the respondents would not recommend the course as a route to the current role. Follow up interviews indicated that this was in quite a few cases due to concern about the management of the course and the placement process. The course team has been evolved and has focused on improving these areas over the past 18 months (to Nov. 2016) and they have been addressed through specific course enhancement measures. From the year 16/17 new assignment of responsibilities for the placement and programme management were made. Enhancements of networking with employers and potential placement providers as well as alumni,continue to be developed