Complete Schedule
Measuring the Return on Investment of High-Impact Practices for Transfer, Pell-Eligible Students: A Quality Job Placement Framework
Presentation Type
Mini-Presentation
Location
Dr. Phillips Academic Commons, Room 215
Event Website
https://researchsymposium.ucf.edu/
Start Date
16-10-2026 4:10 PM
End Date
16-10-2026 4:40 PM
Description/Abstract
Higher education faces growing pressure to demonstrate Return on Investment (RoI), yet traditional measures often reduce post-graduation outcomes to a binary employment metric, obscuring whether graduates secure jobs that are truly “good.” Leveraging University of Central Florida's robust High-Impact Practices (HIPs) tracking system, this study introduces a Quality Job Placement (QJP) framework to evaluate the labor-market returns of HIP participation.
QJP is operationalized as a composite measure comprising three dichotomous dimensions: field alignment, full-time employment, and compensation. To account for disciplinary variation in earnings, compensation is deemed sufficient when graduates meet either a regional living-wage threshold (MIT Living Wage Calculator) or a field-specific median wage benchmark (FETPIP). A placement is classified as a "quality job" only when all three criteria are met.
Using First Destination Survey data collected prior to commencement and linked to participation in undergraduate research and internships, we establish a baseline QJP rate of 28% among Pell-eligible transfer students. Among Pell-eligible graduates, decomposition of QJP reveals that field alignment represents the greatest opportunity for improvement, while full-time employment approaches a ceiling effect, and compensation remains constrained by labor-market conditions.
Multivariate logistic regression indicates that HIP participants had 2.95 times greater odds of securing field-aligned employment than nonparticipants. These findings suggest that HIPs influence the dimension of QJP with the greatest capacity for change and may serve as a mechanism through which quality job placement improves. The QJP framework offers an equity-centered, transferable approach to measuring institutional RoI while accounting for disciplinary differences and labor-market realities.
Measuring the Return on Investment of High-Impact Practices for Transfer, Pell-Eligible Students: A Quality Job Placement Framework
Dr. Phillips Academic Commons, Room 215
Higher education faces growing pressure to demonstrate Return on Investment (RoI), yet traditional measures often reduce post-graduation outcomes to a binary employment metric, obscuring whether graduates secure jobs that are truly “good.” Leveraging University of Central Florida's robust High-Impact Practices (HIPs) tracking system, this study introduces a Quality Job Placement (QJP) framework to evaluate the labor-market returns of HIP participation.
QJP is operationalized as a composite measure comprising three dichotomous dimensions: field alignment, full-time employment, and compensation. To account for disciplinary variation in earnings, compensation is deemed sufficient when graduates meet either a regional living-wage threshold (MIT Living Wage Calculator) or a field-specific median wage benchmark (FETPIP). A placement is classified as a "quality job" only when all three criteria are met.
Using First Destination Survey data collected prior to commencement and linked to participation in undergraduate research and internships, we establish a baseline QJP rate of 28% among Pell-eligible transfer students. Among Pell-eligible graduates, decomposition of QJP reveals that field alignment represents the greatest opportunity for improvement, while full-time employment approaches a ceiling effect, and compensation remains constrained by labor-market conditions.
Multivariate logistic regression indicates that HIP participants had 2.95 times greater odds of securing field-aligned employment than nonparticipants. These findings suggest that HIPs influence the dimension of QJP with the greatest capacity for change and may serve as a mechanism through which quality job placement improves. The QJP framework offers an equity-centered, transferable approach to measuring institutional RoI while accounting for disciplinary differences and labor-market realities.
https://stars.library.ucf.edu/researchsymposium/2026/CompleteSchedule/3