08/01 - February

Dear Colleague

2006/07 HESA Destinations of Leavers from HE (DLHE) Data Collection (Ref C06018)

This Circular contains links to documents and further guidance that are required for the C06018 data collection. Institutions are therefore requested to review the information contained in the following documents:

Access codes

Access codes will be issued to the record contact (and only the record contact) when the data collection system opens in early March 2008 for submitting 2006/07 DLHE data to HESA. Please note that access codes issued in previous years have now expired.

Further guidance

Students with two awards which qualify them to be included in both the April and January DLHE surveys

In the case of such students institutions should return the current or latest position to HESA, i.e. the information collected as part of the January DLHE survey. Only if the student responded in April but not January should the information from April be returned to HESA.

Fields 37-43 Reason for taking another course 1-8 (SECINT1-8)

Q25 appears on the DLHE questionnaire (i.e. paper copy or online version) and not on the telephone script. Responses to Question 25 (detailed below) are returned in Fields 37-43 SECINT1-8.

Q25. Why did you decide to undertake further study, training or research?
Field 37 - Because it was a requirement of my employment on 16 April 2007/14 January 2008 that I did
Field 38 - To develop a broader or more specialist range of skills or knowledge
Field 39 - To change or improve my career options
Field 40 - Because I was interested in the content of the course
Field 41 - Because I had enjoyed my first course and wanted to continue studying
Field 42 - I wanted to go on being a student/I wanted to postpone job hunting
Field 43 - I had been unable to find a suitable job

The response to option 1, ‘Because it was a requirement of my employment on 16 April 2007/14 January 2008 that I did’, is returned in Field 37 SECINT1 and applies to leavers in further study, training or research and employment. As such, Field 37 SECINT1 must be coded 'X' and not ‘0’ for those leavers in further study, training or research who are not in employment.

Responses to options 2-7 are returned in Fields 38-43 SECINT2-8 respectively and apply to leavers in further study, training or research who complete the questionnaire (i.e. paper copy or online version) and not the telephone script. As such, Fields 38-43 SECINT2-8 must be coded either ‘0’ or ‘1’ but not ‘X’ for leavers in further study, training or research who have completed the questionnaire. Where data is collected using the telephone script SECINT2-8 must be coded ‘X’.

Field 50 Reason for taking original course (INTENT)

Q32 is a core question and appears on both the DLHE questionnaire and the telephone script. The question is applicable to part-time qualifiers only and there are four possible answers a respondent can give.

Q32. Thinking back to when you started the course you completed last academic year: which of the following best describes what motivated you to take the course?

In order to be useful the field requires more consistent coverage. As such institutions should ensure that all responses recieved are returned during data collection.

Teaching Quality Information (TQI)

A successful COMMIT will generate TQI Tables 5 – 7 as detailed below (Tables 1 - 4 are produced as part of the Student Record collection). Institutions are advised to review these tables before the DLHE collection closes.

Table 5: Destinations information
Table 6: Job categories information
Table 7: Common job types information

Computer-Assisted Coding of Text (CASCOT) coding tool – SIC and SOC

The CASCOT coding tool has been designed to assign a code to a string of text. In the case of the SOC this string of text is typically a job title obtained from the DLHE survey. CASCOT has been developed by the Warwick Institute for Employment Research, and released under licence to institutions via HESA for the purpose of assisting with coding of text in the DLHE return. The software is available to download from the ‘Available collections’ page on the submission site at http://submit.hesa.ac.uk/.

Who to contact during data collection

If you have any queries on the issues raised in this Circular, please contact the Institutional Liaison team at HESA, or email (liaison@hesa.ac.uk).

Yours sincerely

C. Jane Wild
Director of Operations