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On 14 September, Dr Sangwoo Lee presented at an expert roundtable hosted by the British Academy.  Sharing findings from his recent research on multidimensional graduate job quality premiums across the UK and Europe, he argued that conventional evaluative metrics, which rely heavily on gross earnings and standard employment status, fail to capture the realities of modern graduate employment.

IER was also represented at the roundtable by Professor Peter Elias and Gabriel Atfield, contributing to discussions on skills, regional inequality, and the future data infrastructure needed to assess fair and sustainable work across the UK.

±õ·¡¸é’s Dr Sangwoo Lee recently shared insights at the American Educational Research Association (AERA) 2026 conference in Los Angeles and at the Centre for Global Higher Education (CGHE) 2026 conference in Oxford, challenging traditional views on the value of a university degree.

His research, "Beyond Earnings: The Multidimensional Job Quality Premiums for University Graduates in Europe," explores whether higher education truly delivers better working conditions across non-monetary dimensions.

A pioneering study published in provides the first comprehensive examination of multidimensional job quality premiums for university graduates across European labour markets, challenging long-held assumptions about the returns to higher education.

The findings carry important implications for how we evaluate higher education outcomes and may help explain why objective graduate advantages don't always translate into higher subjective wellbeing—the so-called "paradox of the dissatisfied graduate."

Graduation provides a welcome opportunity to reflect back on and celebrate the successes of our students. Over the past academic year, two IER PhD students successfully completed their PhD: Dr Wafaa Elmezraoui and Dr Rebeka Balogh. Congratulations and best wishes to the two of you. Find out more about our PhD students and their work on our website.

The quality of paid work has become an essential component of individuals’ well-being in modern-day capitalism, and there has been a surge in policy discourse surrounding the objective of ‘more and better jobs’ (as articulated by the OECD) or ‘decent work’ (as outlined in the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals) over the past two decades.