Kim Coogan

I am currently based at Maynooth University School of Business. I’m researching the undergraduate transition from education to the labour market. I’ve been conducting qualitative interviews with students while they undertake a nine-month virtual internship and I’ve been tracking how their individual-level capital and identity are evolving during that time. My supervisors are Dr. Marian Crowley-Henry and Dr. Jean Cushen.

I applied for an NUI Award to fund my travel and stay in the United Kingdom while I engage in advanced data analysis techniques with leading scholars in my field. I will be travelling to London and the South of England in mid-2022 for several months. I believe this funding will enable me to take the study of career transitions and undergraduate capital and identity evolution to a new level in the Irish context. With the support of this NUI Denis Phelan Scholarship, I now have the opportunity to become a thought leader and expert of my field in Ireland. Future students, like me, will no longer need to travel abroad to find experts in this field, who have engaged in specific data analysis techniques. I think that’s a real contribution to the future of scholarship in Ireland and one of which I feel privileged to be a part.

I’m looking forwarding to understanding what the student transition to the contemporary labour market is really like and what are the key issues and opportunities that students face. I’m excited about providing real world insight and recommendations to educational institutions, organisations, and students, and making new contributions to academic theory and methodology.