The role of emotional geography in graduate transitions from higher education in England

This paper presents the ways in which students from a Science, Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) discipline at a Northern Urban English university narrate their decisions as they navigate their transition from degrees to their career futures. Contrary to the managerial expectations of universities and policy that students ‘fill the STEM skills gap’, the process through which students and graduates make decisions about their future trajectories includes responding to concerns brought about by personal and social factors of influence, one of which is place relating to their emotional relationship with past, present and future geographical location. This paper aims to make two inter-related arguments: Firstly, that geography can act as a determining, emotional factor of influence in the decision-making process of young people during the process of transitioning from their degrees. Secondly, the subsequent movement in spatial terms is an attempt to influence as well as construct their own futures, whether or not this is the ‘right’ decision. Employment futures of young people must take into account the ways in which this manifests to better understand the decision-making process.