Vol. 4 No. 2 (2026)

  • Open Access

    Article

    Article ID: 4090

    Assessing social work students’ satisfaction with educational transitions within reasonable adjustments

    by Paula Beesley, Ged McGurn, Anna Walkden

    Forum for Education Studies, Vol.4, No.2, 2026;

    Transitions in social work education constitute the process of change when starting a new university, course, year, module and placement. It is important that transition planning work is embedded in the support provision for professional students and is well-coordinated to enable students to engage effectively with all learning opportunities. This research was funded by Leeds Beckett University Teaching Excellence Project with the aim of exploring barriers and good practice to understand optimal transition support to enhance engagement and positive outcomes for students requiring a reasonable adjustment. The data was collected through completion of a mixed-methods survey in the form of a written questionnaire or an interactive interview based on the questionnaire, with 19 social work students from one English university responding. The data was thematically analysed and the themes of ‘preparation’, ‘staff understanding’ and ‘student coping strategies’ emerged. It is recommended that teaching staff, tutors and practice educators receive specific training on localised reasonable adjustment policy and on the impact that being neurodivergent, having a physical disability, physical health or mental health issue has on students’ ability to engage with learning opportunities. In addition, teaching staff should provide reasonable adjustment-friendly practice, where tutors and practice educators take time at the start of working with a student to familiarise themselves with the individual student’s reasonable adjustment needs and support students in developing coping strategies that enable them to be prepared for transition.

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  • Open Access

    Article

    Article ID: 4265

    Transition to first employment: A survival analysis of university graduates from five cohorts

    by Nam Hoang Tran, Thuy Thi Hong Dang, Van Hong Nghiem

    Forum for Education Studies, Vol.4, No.2, 2026;

    Graduate employability research often evaluates whether graduates obtain jobs, but the duration required to secure the first job is an equally important indicator of labor market transition. This study applies survival analysis to examine time-to-employment among graduates of a public university in languages, social sciences, and humanities in Vietnam. Using graduate tracer survey data from five cohorts, Kaplan–Meier estimation and Cox proportional hazards regression were employed to analyze the timing of first employment and factors associated with faster labor market entry. The outcome variable was time from graduation to first employment, measured in ordered intervals, with unemployed graduates treated as right-censored observations. Among 657 graduates, 607 (92.4%) had obtained first employment by the time of the survey. Most graduates entered the labor market rapidly: 526 (80.1%) obtained their first job within less than three months after graduation, and the median time-to-employment category was the earliest interval. Kaplan–Meier comparisons showed no statistically significant subgroup differences by sex, supplementary training, job–major alignment, or cohort. However, the adjusted Cox model identified a significant cohort effect: compared with the 2020 cohort, the 2022 cohort had a lower hazard of first employment, indicating a slower transition into the labor market (HR = 0.695, 95% CI: 0.532–0.908, p = 0.0076). Other factors, including sex, job–major alignment, supplementary training, knowledge suitability, and skills suitability, were not statistically significant. This study advances Vietnamese graduate employability research by shifting the focus from static employment status to the timing of first employment and by demonstrating the value of survival analysis for examining cohort-sensitive school-to-work transitions when overall employment rates are high.

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