MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — A study from West Virginia University says college graduates in the Mountain State who received a Promise Scholarship are more likely to stay and work in West Virginia.
The WVU College of Business and Economics did the study for the West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission. Researchers took at look at the college graduates from the past 10 years.
The study estimates 48 percent of the graduates work here and those who received a Promise Scholarship are more likely to work in their home state.
“Human capital development is crucial to long-run economic prosperity for West Virginia, and as such it is vital to understand how our college and university graduates fare in the labor market,” Dr. John Deskins, Director of the WVU Bureau of Business and Economic Research (BBER) and co-author of the study said in a news release. “This research will be important in designing better public policies surrounding higher education in the future.”
Deskins said another finding showed Promise recipients “exhibit significantly higher work participation rates in West Virginia compared to overall baccalaureate graduates.”
The Promise Scholarship is a merit-based scholarship program.
The study said that more than half of the graduates from the past 10 years that work in the state do so in just two industries: health care and social assistance, and education services.