06/01 July

July 2006

DLHE - Development of Longitudinal Stage -
Update

Dear Colleague

Introduction

As part of the development of the DLHE Longitudinal survey HESA commissioned Ipsos MORI to undertake a pilot. The pilot was designed to test a number of methodological variations (different versions of the questionnaire and different contact methods), but additionally to assess the quality and coverage of graduate contact details that institutions are able to provide. Over 30 institutions took part in the pilot. The pilot is now complete and a report has been received from Ipsos MORI. Ipsos MORI indicate that it is feasible to undertake such a survey and suggest that a response rate of around 40% could be achieved.

In parallel with the pilot HESA undertook a consultation exercise to which over 40 institutions responded. The results of this consultation were generally positive and there was strong institutional support for the collection of longitudinal data. The consultation responses detailed the types of information institutions would like to get from the DLHE Longitudinal survey, other experiences in data capture of this type, as well as indicating how prepared institutions are and highlighting areas where guidance and support might be required. DLHE Circular 05/03.

Following the success of the pilot, and the results of the consultation undertaken earlier this year, HESA Board have approved a first full DLHE Longitudinal survey to be undertaken in December 2006. It is proposed that a decision about the longer term future of the survey be made once the data collected from the first survey have been evaluated.

• The survey be administered by a central contractor (YouGov/IFF Research) and not by institutions, as was always planned.
• Institutions will be requested to provide contact details for the graduates who are to be included in the sample for the survey and will be provided with the data collected from their own graduates. Otherwise, institutions will have no involvement in the running of the survey. SFC have stipulated that institutional involvement in the survey will be a requirement. Institutions in Wales and Northern Ireland will be strongly encouraged to participate by their relevant funding councils. HEFCE expect all English institutions to provide contact details for students who are included in the sample. HEFCE recognise that some institutions may face difficulty in providing contact details in the first year of this survey due to commitments they have given to their alumni about the use of their contact details. Institutions who are unable to provide contact details for this reason should contact Judy Akinbolu (e-mail: j.akinbolu@hefce.ac.uk phone: 0117 9317110) at HEFCE to discuss how they will ensure they are able to fully participate in future surveys and whether it is practical to take any remedial action in respect of this survey.
• The full-scale survey will attempt to contact approximately 65,000 graduates. Expert advice has being sought to finalise the sample size and design.
• The survey will make use of a variety of contact methods - online, postal and telephone. All of the graduates in the sample will be asked to provide information about their current activities as at the survey date, and in addition a sub-sample will be asked to provide detailed career history information to account for their time since graduation. This latter information will be carefully assessed after the first full survey, both for data quality and useablility, before a decision is taken as to the future of the data collection.

In some respects therefore, the first full-scale survey will contain some further elements of piloting, which will allow decisions to be made about this and the early survey in the longer term. Data from the first DLHE Longitudinal data collection will be available in the spring of 2007.

There remain some data protection issues to be addressed in a number of institutions before all institutions are able to be included in the survey and HESA will continue to provide appropriate guidance in this area as required. There is a need for institutions' data protection arrangements to be in order and that following the first year of survey institutions must have these arrangements firmly in place. For more information on data protection and preparation for the DLHE Longitudinal survey click here.

• Required to collect and maintain up-to-date contact details. These will need to include the HESA Unique Student Identifier (HUSID) or the institution's own identifier for students (OWNSTU) to allow linking between the HESA Student and DLHE data to provide the variables for the structured sample. Institutions will need to provide the contractor with the details for those graduates who have been selected as part of the sample.
• Required to have sound data protection statements, which are consistent throughout the departments within that institution, and that meet the necessary data protection requirements of the DLHE Longitudinal survey.
• Need to keep records of those graduates, who at early DLHE, asked to be excluded from taking part in the longitudinal stage of the DLHE survey, so that they can be removed from the sampling frame.

If you have any queries on the issues raised in this circular please contact the Agency's Institutional Liaison team at HESA or email Liaison@hesa.ac.uk.

Yours sincerely

C Jane Wild
Director of Operations