The expansion of education opportunity in sub-Saharan Africa has been predicated on the assumption that graduates would provide the human capital vital for any modernizing effort and that education would provide an avenue for the powerless to gain power. This study examined this relationship in one country, Kenya, focusing on two questions: (1) To what extent has family background differentially influenced the post-graduation experiences of University of Nairobi graduates? (2) To what extent has the vastly expanded supply of graduates and the changing needs of the Kenyan labor market impacted the efficient absorption of University of Nairobi graduates into the economy? Based upon the conflicting evidence in the literature regarding the relationship between socio-economic background, educational attainment, and occupational placement, it was hypothesized that there would be no significant differences in the post-graduation experiences of graduates from less and more advantaged family backgrounds. It was also hypothesized that earlier (1970) graduates would benefit from the relative dearth of competition in the labor market by securing higher-level, permanent employment more rapidly than later (1975, 1979, 1983) graduates.
Conclusions are based on the findings of a tracer study of a sample of 464 randomly-selected chemistry, mathematics, commerce, and sociology graduates from the University of Nairobi, who completed their work in 1970, 1975, 1979, and 1983. Of those located, 76.4 percent responded to a mailed survey asking them to provide information on family background, post-graduation employment, and educational histories.
Data pointed to limited influence of family background. Graduates with diverse family backgrounds were generally found to have similar post-graduation experiences. However, this may be changing as the competition for desirable employment intensifies. Data highlighted a growing saturation of the labor market. This dramatically impacted the experience of the 1983 cohort, which differed significantly from the earlier cohorts in terms of first job level, length of unemployment, tendency to accept temporary employment, and utilization of training. Other factors that play a role in the pattern of employment, e.g., ethnicity, field of study, academic performance, secondary school attended, and sex, were also examined.
