Do Digital Degrees Change First-Job Trajectories for African Graduates? A Three-Country Tracer Study

Abstract

Critics claim an online African degree is unread by employers. This tracer study follows 640 AFU bachelor’s and master’s graduates in South Africa, Ghana and Kenya 12 months after award. Employment rates were comparable to matched campus peers in the same cities when graduates could show a verified transcript, a capstone artefact, and a supervisor letter. The penalty appeared when graduates could only show a platform badge. Public employers were slower than private digital firms, but not uniformly closed. The task for Pulse College is credential design: human-readable transcripts, verification URLs that work on a government clerk’s browser, and capstones that look like work. Youth employment will not be solved by a university, but a university can stop adding friction.