Aligning Education With Workforce Needs - WGU and Gallup
In a comprehensive study of alumni outcomes, Gallup measured the extent to which WGU graduates are achieving good jobs and great lives after completing their degrees.
Traditional metrics for measuring the value of a college education - namely, job and graduate school placement rates and alumni salaries - may be the simplest evaluations of alumni outcomes, but they do not fully capture the experience and impact of a college education. Conventional outcomes do not adequately reflect the missions of higher education institutions. They fail to address some of the primary reasons students attend college: not only to obtain a good-paying job - but to follow a fulfilling career path that allows them to make meaningful, lifelong contributions to society.
Since 2014, Gallup has surveyed a nationally representative sample of more than 75,000 college graduates to assess their post-collegiate well-being and workplace engagement and identify links between these outcomes and their undergraduate experiences. This study - the Strada-Gallup Alumni Survey - represents a landmark effort to measure the long-term outcomes of college graduates, giving colleges and universities the opportunity to better understand their success in preparing students to lead purposeful lives and have successful careers.
44%
of WGU graduates are engaged in their work.
79%
of WGU graduates are employed full time for an employer.
3/4
About three-quarters (72%) strongly agree their degree was worth the cost - nearly double the percentage of college graduates nationally.
Download the Report
To download the Great Jobs, Great Lives - Gallup Study of Recent Western Governors University Alumni report, please complete the form below to receive an email with a link to a PDF of the report. Gallup may also contact you via email about your interest in this topic.