Graduate retention in the Delft area: an investigation of

career and location decisions of TUDelft alumni

Research proposal for graduation project in Engineering & Policy Analysis (EPA)

Nicolò Wojewoda, 1334662

Faculty of Technology, Policy and Management
Delft University of Technology
nicolo.wojewoda@gmail.com

draft 6th March 2008

Keywords: graduate retention, urban economy, career decision, location choice, job
mobility

SUMMARY
Most literature focuses on the attraction of talent in regional or urban areas, with the goal
of stimulating local economic growth. Few efforts, however, have been spent on retention
of such talent, especially when this kind of human capital is produced in the city itself. The
proposed research aims to highlight the importance of graduate retention in the local
economy and to bring to surface the reasons for TUDelft alumni to stay in or leave the
Delft area after graduation. The focus is on individual decision-making in a determined
environment (housing, work opportunities, social life, etc.). Through a survey and
interviews, data will be gathered and analysed, in order to find meaningful correlations
between contextual elements and graduate retention in the local economy. The results will
be also made available in the form of a booklet to the wider audience, to be presented to
the relevant stakeholders, in order to foster public debate on the issue.

1 Introduction 2
1.1 Context of the proposal 2
1.2 Problem area 2
1.3 Research objectives 3
1.4 Research questions 3
2 Methodology 3
3 Products 4
4 Expected outcomes 4
5 Activities 4
6 Budget 5
7 Communication 6
8 Thesis report 6
9 References and relevant sources 7
9.1 Journal articles 7
9.2 Books and other publications 7
9.3 World Wide Web 7
1 Introduction
1.1 Context of the proposal
The current research proposal is conceived within the framework of the graduation project
for the Engineering & Policy Analysis master programme. The document constitutes both
part of the requirements for fulfilling the course EPA2931 ʻPreparation master thesisʼ and
part of the documentation required to formally inquire about the beginning of a thesis
project. The final draft of the proposal will be presented in the kick-off meeting of the thesis
committee in charge of supervision of the authorʼs work.

1.2 Problem area

Although the term knowledge economy has been used in the last decades to indicate a
variety of concepts related to the importance of knowledge in our current economic
processes (Godin, 2006), the underlying importance of the topic is such that countries at
all levels of economic development are embarking on economies based on the creation,
acquisition, consumption and diffusion of knowledge (World Bank, 1998).
Godin (2006) notes that the biggest proponents of the knowledge economy, such as the
OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development), have been evaluating
its progress mostly in terms of investments in R&D. Recent literature, though, suggests
that the dimensions of innovation (Raspe & van Oort, 2006) and human capital (Mellander
& Florida, 2006; Raspe & van Oort, 2006) plays a big role in such development as well.
Universities, as a focal production point of knowledge and knowledge workers, play
therefore a big role in todayʼs knowledge economy (Conceição & Heitor, 1999; Florida et
al., 2006). Such influence, however, has mostly been studied with the national or
international perspective in mind.
Recently, authors have started to focus on the regional/urban perspective of the
knowledge economy, driven by the increasing importance of the region as the basic unit of
analysis (Cappellin, 2007). The authors cited by Harloe & Perry (2004) posit that “the
balance is shifting away from relative autonomy towards a new ʻmode of knowledge
productionʼ (Gibbons et al., 1994; Ruivo, 1994; Nowotny et al., 2001) in which the growing
engagement of universities with their regions and localities is an important aspect.” Also,
universities can be considered as a local source of expertise for existing organizations in
the region (van der Meer, 1997). Finally, the importance of the city and its urban economy
is also highlighted by a series of non-academic publications of high profile (e.g. Jones et
al., 2006; Bolz et al., 2005).

The city of Delft has been lately pursuing the idea of exploiting “the economic potential of
Delft as a knowledge city” (van Geenhuizen, 1997, p. 375). In fact, approximately half of all
Delft jobs are knowledge-intensive (Delft.com, 2008) and many start-ups are born
throughout the year, further contributing to these figures. Although TUDelft and the other
research/education organizations in the urban area employ a big percentage of the cityʼs
population, preliminary talks with stakeholders suggest that a big part of TUDelft alumni
decide to leave the city after graduation and start their own business in another city/region,
or simply get employed by big companies located in the major Dutch cities (Rotterdam,
The Hague, Amsterdam), as a first step in their career development.

When it comes to career and location choices, similar research (e.g. Hansen et al., 2003;
Harren, 1979) stresses the line of inquiry related to patterns of individual decision-making
by worker. In the case of an graduate student seeking first employment, the motivations
are very varied, as they relate, for instance, with unemployment reasons (Böheim et al.,
1999) or expected income (Kennan et al., 2003) or others.
All these elements show that the retention of graduates in the urban economy is therefore
a priority for the city of Delft to ensure that the precious resources utilized to educate and
train tomorrowʼs knowledge workers are not going to be invested in a different city/region,
not allowing the city of Delft to reap the benefits of such opportunity.

Nevertheless, thereʼs a couple of major knowledge gaps on the issue:

• thereʼs no knowledge about current levels of graduate retention
• thereʼs little understanding about the perception of TUDelft graduates regarding
the reasons for their choice to stay in or leave Delft

1.3 Research objectives

In light of the previous considerations, the objectives of the proposed research are:
• to highlight the importance of retaining knowledge workers in the urban economy,
in order to stimulate economic growth
• to determine the reasons for TUDelft alumni to stay in or leave Delft after
graduation
• to foster public debate about the issue in the city of Delft
• to contribute to the research field of graduate retention

1.4 Research questions

The proposed research question is:
What are the contextual issues in the Delft area that require improvement in order to
enhance graduate retention in the city of Delft?

The research might include answering the following sub-questions:

• What is the current status of graduate retention in the urban economy of Delft?
• What are the causes for TUDelft alumni to stay in or leave Delft after graduation?
• How do these causes impact graduate retention?
• What policy insights can we derive from these correlations?

2 Methodology
The analysis of current employment conditions of TUDelft alumni would have to resort to
the universityʼs existing contacts with recent graduates of its educational programmes. The
proposed timespan for such sample is the most recent cohort (graduated in the 2006-2007
academic year) and the cohort of 2001-2002, in order to establish, if possible comparisons
over time between the two samples and hopefully between the two populations. The
source of these contacts would probably be the universityʼs database system with data
about past and present students at TUDelft.

These alumni would be inquired about their current level of employement, if any, their
living and working conditions and their reasons for choosing to stay in or leave Delft after
graduation. The tool for inquiry would be an online survey. The questionnaire of the survey
would be prepared with input from relevant stakeholders, within the timeframe of the
project. This input would also serve to create a first conceptual model of the issue, that
would be tested and improved through the results of the survey. The survey would have a
sample size that allows statistical analysis, with enough variety to cover the whole set of
faculties and educational programmes offered at TUDelft, as well as the different
conditions of the population (gender, nationality, etc.). The survey would probably be run
online with the same tools that the university is currently using to assess satisfaction of
foreign students at TUDelft.

Using causal analysis tools and methods, an analysis of the causes will be made and
iteratively confronted with the results of the inquiry. The tool for statistical analysis instead
would be SPSS or similar.

The theoretical framework for this research would be provided by a review of relevant
literature in English, through databases (Scopus, Web of knowledge, Webspirs, Google
Scholar) and the Internet (Google). Additional information would be gathered from other
stakeholders in the process (TUDelft management, TUDelft researchers, Delft municipality
management, other Delft-based groups with interest on the issue). Data sources in this
case would include both interviews as well as publications from the relevant stakeholders.

3 Products
The products of the research are going to be:
• a master thesis report, conforming to the graduation requirements of the
Engineering & Policy Analysis master programme
• the publication of a scientific article in an academic journal
• a booklet illustrating the problem to the wider audience (policy-makers, employers,
students, etc.)
• a press conference with the relevant parties (stakeholders and media) on the
results of the research

4 Expected outcomes
The research is expected to produce the following outcomes:
• a description of the current status of graduate retention, based on the surveyed
sample, that proves that most TUDelft alumni chose not to work or live in Delft
after graduation
• an overview of the issues influencing the choice of TUDelft alumni when deciding
on career and location after graduation, related to all areas of life including leisure,
career, family, economic situation and many others
• a statistical analysis that shows significant correlations between certain elements
of influence and the graduate studentsʼ decisions on whether to stay in or leave
Delft

5 Activities
The following is a tentative list of the proposed activities, together with the corresponding
amount of workload required.
 Activity Workload (hours)

Preparation: 100
• literature research
• problem analysis
• learning software and
research methods
• conceptual modeling

Data gathering: 100

• get contacts
• create questionnaire
• prepare interviews
• conduct interviews
• arrange survey

Data analysis: 130

• data processing
• causal analysis
• statistical analysis

Writing thesis report 200

Preparing final presentation 32

Preparing booklet with 20

research outcomes

Write journal article 40

Meetings, documentation 50
and reporting to the thesis
committee

SUBTOTAL 672 (24 ECTS)

buffer time 28

TOTAL 700

6 Budget
The following are the expected costs incurred in the proposed research activities.

Item Cost (EUR)

Journal articles or other 50

publications

Transportation to interview 50
locations
 Item Cost (EUR)

Interview equipment 50

Survey setup costs 50

Survey incentives 100

Printing 50

TOTAL 350

7 Communication
The progress of the research will be periodically monitored by the thesis committee
through meetings and progress reports by email. The day-to-day supervisory efforts will be
taken care of by the 1st supervisor dr. Ronald Dekker and by the 2nd supervisor XXX.
A blog will be created to share the progress of the research and also to develop further
insights not related to this project. Time for this will be taken aside from the project time,
hence not being included on the table in Chapter 5.

8 Thesis report
This is a preliminary outline of the final master thesis report:

Cover page
blank
Title page
blank
to.../Acknowledgements
Preface
Table of contents
List of figures
List of tables
Summary (2)
1 Introduction (5)
1.1 Problem context
1.2 Research objectives
1.3 Research questions
1.4 Structure of this report
2 Methodology (5)
2.1 Scientific methods
2.2 Tools
2.3 Resources
3 The urban knowledge economy
3 Graduate migrantsʼ perspectives (30)
3.1 Causes for migration
3.2 Development of solutions
4 Conclusions (5)
5 Recommendations (2)
References
Appendices
9 References and relevant sources
9.1 Journal articles
Cappellin R. (2007), ʻThe Territorial Dimension of the Knowledge Economy: Collective
Learning, Spatial Changes and Regional and Urban Policiesʼ, American Behavioral
Scientist, vol. 50, n. 7, pp. 897-921
Conceição P., Heitor M. V (1999), ʻOn the role of the university in the knowledge
economyʼ, Science and Public Policy, vol. 26, no. 1, pp. 37-51
Godin B. (2006), ʻThe Knowledge-Based Economy: Conceptual Framework or
Buzzword?ʼ, Journal on Technology Transfer, vol. 31, pp. 17-30
Hansen S. B., Ban C., Huggins L. (2003), ʻExplaining the “Brain Drain” from Older
Industrial Cities: The Pittsburgh Regionʼ, Economic Development Quarterly, vol. 17,
no. 2, pp. 132-147
Harloe M., Perry B. (2004), ʻUniversities, Localities and Regional Development: The
Emergence of the ʻMode 2ʼ University?ʼ, International Journal of Urban and
Regional Research, vol. 28, no. 1, pp. 212-23
Harren V. A. (1979), ʻA Model of Career Decision Making for College Studentsʼ, Journal of
Vocational Behavior, vol. 14, pp. 119-133
Raspe O., van Oort F. (2006), ʻThe Knowledge Economy and Urban Economic Growthʼ,
European Planning Studies, vol. 14, no. 9, pp. 1209-1234
van der Meer E. (1997), ʻThe University as a local source of expertiseʼ, GeoJournal, vol.
41, no. 4, pp. 359-367
van Geenhuizen M., Nijkamp P., Rijckenberg H. (1997), ʻUniversities and knowledge-
based economic growth: the case of Delft (NL)ʼ, GeoJournal, vol. 41, no. 4, pp.
369-377

9.2 Books and other publications

Böheim R., Taylor M. (1999), ʻResidential mobility, housing tenure and the labour market in
Britainʼ, Institute for Social and Economic Research and Institute for Labour
Research, University of Essex
Florida R., Gates G., Knudsen B., Stolarick K. (2006), ʻThe University and the Creative
Economyʼ
Kennan J., Walker J. R. (2003), ʻThe effect of expected income on individual migration
decisionsʼ, National Bureau of Economic Research
Jones A., Williams L., Lee N., Coats D., Cowling M. (2006), ʻIdeopolis: Knowledge
City-Regionsʼ, The Work Foundation
Mellander C., Florida R. (2006), ʻThe Creative Class or Human Capital? Explaining
regional development in Swedenʼ, The Martin Prosperity Institute
Bolz U., Ford A., Gourley M., Magee C., Castilla Porquet M., Rakel J., Radovanovic D.,
Sieverdink A., Sivertsen T., Sturesson J., Teunisse P., Toussing J. (2005) , ʻCities of
the future - global competition, local leadership*ʼ, PricewaterhouseCoopers
World Bank (1998), World Development Report 1998, ʻKnowledge for Developmentʼ

9.3 World Wide Web

Delft.com (2008), ʻDelft Knowledge Cityʼ, http://www.delft.nl/webEN/content.jsp?
objectid=33776 (retrieved on the 18th February 2008)