A Qualitative Meta-analysis on Occupation Status of Graduates in Iran

During the recent years, despite numerous studies conducted in the field of occupation of graduates in the Iran, several dimensions have still remained unknown; hence, conducting a qualitative meta-analysis in this field could reveal the methodological and content characteristics of these studies and identify the research gaps in this field at the same time. Therefore, 92 studies in this field conducted during the period 1978 to 2018 in the form of theses and research papers were investigated through meta-analysis by searching for the two keywords "occupation and graduates" in two scientific databases including "Iran Science and Technology Research Institute (Iran Doc)” and “The Scientific Database of Jahad Daneshgahi”. Examining the studies published over the past few decades showed that investigating the issues related to graduates' occupation mainly involved emphasizing several specific dimensions such as occupation status and inoccupation of graduates, the need to focus on the quality of higher education and curriculum in the university, and highlighting graduate entrepreneurship. With regard to the results of research in this area, the repetition of studies and the lack of a comprehensive study on graduate occupation could be attributed to factors such as disproportionate share of academic disciplines, imbalances in the use of methodological approaches, a lack of theoretical basis that is consistent with conditions of Iranian society, a lack of focus on gender issues and challenges faced by graduates, inadequate attention to issues such as skills development and activities in the cooperative sectors and lack of future-based research.