Frequently asked questions for graduates

What is the Destinations of Leavers from Higher Education (DLHE) survey about?

The Destinations of Leavers from Higher Education (DLHE) survey is a survey of graduates from Higher Education (HE). It is investigates the early career patterns of HE graduates.

The survey is conducted in two parts. The first stage, or early survey, asks all leavers what they are doing six months after they qualified from their HE course. It is carried out by HE institutions, which try to contact all recent leavers six months after leaving, and the data collected by institutions is returned to HESA. This data is used to prepare statistics about the destinations of qualifiers by institution.

The second stage, or longitudinal survey, to which these frequently asked questions relate, is a follow-up survey that looks at the destinations of leavers up to three and a half years after they qualified. This second stage will survey a sample of those who completed the first stage survey.

The first full-scale longitudinal survey was of alumni who left in 2002/03 and took place in winter 2006/07. A pilot survey of a smaller sample of leavers from the class of 2002/03 was carried out in winter 2005/06. The pilot tested the feasibility of carrying out the survey with a larger sample and on a regular basis. The next full survey is taking place this year, and some of the graduates from the leaving cohort of 2004/05 will be surveyed in November 2008.

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How did I get to be included in the sample for the follow-up survey?

When you took part in the first stage of the DLHE survey approximately six months after you graduated, you will have been informed about potentially being a part of the second stage of the survey, the follow-up, in three years time.

You will also have been informed that you could opt-out of being part of the follow-up by contacting your institution, either at the time of the survey, or at any point between the first survey and the time that the follow-up would take place. This information was made available to you by way of the letter or email that accompanied the early survey, or, if you completed the early survey by telephone interview by the telephone interviewer. The letters, emails and the information imparted to you by the telephone interviewers explained that a follow-up survey will take place, that you may be invited to take part in that follow-up survey, that your contact details would be passed on to a third party undertaking the survey on behalf of HESA, and that you can object to being a part of the follow-up survey by contacting your HEI. The sample for the follow-up survey is drawn from those who met the criteria for inclusion e.g. completed and returned the first stage survey and did not opt out.

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Who is carrying out this survey?

A contractor will manage and administer the survey centrally on behalf of HESA, who already collects information from HE institutions about their students.

IFF Research were appointed to manage the first full survey in November 2006 and has been appointed to manage and administer the November 2008 survey. In preparation for the survey IFF Research will write to all graduates who are part of the sample, introducing themselves and explaining what will be involved. You will be able to contact IFF Research with any queries any time during the survey.

For more information about HESA please see Overview .

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Why are my contact details needed?

The HE institution you attended will provide the contractor with your contact details so they can contact you to take part in the survey.

The contact details given to IFF Research will be the latest held by your institution (e.g. alumni office or equivalent). IFF Research will not use these details to contact you about anything else. After the survey is complete, IFF Research will destroy your contact details. No other organisation will receive your contact details and your details will not be used for any purpose other than for the follow-up survey, which will be between 1 August 2008 and 30 May 2009. If your contact details have changed, or you provide updated details to IFF Research, these will only be passed back to your university/college in order to update its alumni records, if you give your permission for them to do so. Your institution will only contact you about your response to this survey if you give permission for them to do so.

The contact details passed on from your HEI to IFF Research, if you are a part of the sample, will be postal address, telephone number(s) and email address.

For more data protection information please see the Data Protection Homepage .

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How will the HE institution I attended use the information I provide?

Within your HE institution the DLHE survey results will help in reviewing and promoting courses, and in giving current and prospective students an insight into career destinations and development.

You will be asked if you would be prepared for your institution to contact you in relation to the data you provide in the survey. Some institutions may wish to do this, in order, for example, to invite alumni to careers events, or to give guest lectures. By default it will be assumed that you do not wish to be contacted in this manner.

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Who else will use the data?

HESA will keep the survey data to create time series statistics showing year-by-year changes at sector level.

The following organisations will also have access to the data you provide in order to carry out their statutory functions connected with the funding and monitoring of higher education:

The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS)
Welsh Assembly Government (WAG)
Scottish Executive (SE) [Scottish Government (SG)]
Department for Employment and Learning, Northern Ireland (DEL(NI))
Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE)
Higher Education Funding Council for Wales (HEFCW)
Scottish Further and Higher Education Funding Council (SFC)
Training and Development Agency for Schools (TDA)
Research Councils (RCs)

These organisations will not have access to your contact details. The data they are provided with will not be used in any way that could affect you personally.

These organisations are known as HESA's Statutory Customers, and each will receive different data sets depending on the kind of statistics they require in order to carry out their various functions. For example, the Training and Development Agency for Schools (formerly the Teacher Training Agency) will only receive data relating to Teacher Training qualifiers, and the Department of Health only receives data relating to Health and Social Care qualifiers.

The data is not used by any organsation to identify individuals, neither is it passed to other government agencies for that purpose. The data is only collected for the purpose of producing statistics, which may inform decision making within these organisations. All organisations to whom data is passed are obliged to abide by the Data Protection Act 1998.

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How else will the data be used?

Data will be passed by HESA to the above organisations only for recognised and strictly controlled purposes. The data provided will be linked to other data previously provided to HESA by institutions in order to produce statistical and other anonymous reports. Such reports may be published, or made available under contract through Information Provision. It will be impossible to identify an individual from any published reports and the data will not be used by any organisation in any way that could affect you personally.

HESA may supply data to other organisations or researchers. When doing this, HESA applies a rounding methodology to ensure that individuals cannot be identified from these statistics. Anyone to whom statistics are supplied is contractually obliged to use them only for specific purposes. The Data Protection Act 1998 also requires that data be held securely, is not passed to third parties without consent, and is destroyed or deleted when no longer required for its stated purpose. HESA and all organisations to whom data is passed are obliged to abide by the Data Protection Act 1998.

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How can I get more information?

More information about HESA’s data protection policy can be found on the Data Protection Homepage.

If you have any concerns about your information being used for these purposes, please contact HESA by any of the means listed below. Under the Data Protection Act 1998, you have the right to a copy of the information HESA holds about you. You will have to pay a small fee for this.

Address: HESA, 95 Promenade, Cheltenham, GL50 1HZ
Email: data.protection@hesa.ac.uk
Tel: 01242 255577
Fax: 01242 211122

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