PIs 2007/08: Definitions and technical notes (applicable to table E1)
Coverage
The HESA Destinations of Leavers from Higher Education (DLHE) target population contains all United Kingdom (UK) and European Union (EU) domiciled students reported to HESA for the reporting period 1 August 2007 to 31 July 2008 as obtaining relevant qualifications and whose study was full-time or part-time (including sandwich students and those writing-up theses). Awards from dormant status are not included in the target population. The reference dates for this DLHE return were 14 April 2008 (if the leaver obtained the qualification between 1 August 2007 and 31 December 2007) and 12 January 2009 (if the leaver obtained the qualification between 1 January 2008 and 31 July 2008).
The data used in constructing the employment indicator table is based on the HESA DLHE survey and also uses data from the HESA individualised student record. As with the other indicators, the employment indicator is restricted to students whose normal residence is in the United Kingdom, excluding Guernsey, Jersey and the Isle of Man.
Previously the First Destinations Supplement (FDS) was used to collect data on leavers, this was replaced by the DLHE survey in 2002/03, which is designed to collect richer information than the FDS. For example, leavers are now able to provide more detailed information regarding work and further study, even where these are concurrent. This results in a matrix of possible combinations of work and study allowing more comprehensive analysis. Because of these differences, the 2007/08 Employment Performance Indicator is not comparable to those published prior to 2002/03.
Indicator
The indicator follows the standard categories for publication as published on the HESA website at www.hesa.ac.uk/manuals/07018/categories.htm.
The eligible population is the set of all home-domiciled students who graduated from a full-time course with a first degree qualification in the year in question, provided they are also part of the DLHE population.
The response rate is the proportion of the eligible population for which there are responses to the DLHE survey. This includes those who have refused to take part in the survey.
The base population is the set of all respondents to the survey who are classed as working or studying or as unemployed and seeking work.
The table below shows the classification of the DLHE responses that has been used in the following definitions.
Classification of DLHE responses
| Study (Field 6, MODSTUDY) | ||||
| Employment Circumstances (Field 5, EMPCIR) |
Full-time study (1) | Part-time study (2) | Not in study (3) | |
| Employed full-time in paid work (01) | W | W | W | |
| Employed part-time in paid work (02) | W | W | W | |
| Self-employed/freelance (03) | W | W | W | |
| Voluntary work/other unpaid work (15) | W | W | W | |
| Permanently unable to work/retired (16) | NA | NA | NA | |
| Temporarily sick or unable to work/looking after the home or family (17) | W | W | NA | |
| Taking time out in order to travel (10) | NA | NA | NA | |
| Due to start a job within the next month (11) | W | U | U | |
| Unemployed and looking for employment, further study or training (12) | W | U | U | |
| Not employed but NOT looking for employment, further study or training (13) | W | W | NA | |
| Something else (14) | W | W | NA | |
| Question not answered (XX) | X | X | X | |
W - working or studying or both
U - unemployed and seeking work
NA - not available for work or study, or no information supplied
X - question not answered
The indicator is the percentage of the base population who are working or studying. The indicator is defined as the number of respondents in category W divided by the number in categories W and U, i.e. those graduates working or studying (or both) as a proportion of the numbers working or studying or seeking work. All other categories are excluded from this indicator.
The percent not available for work or excluded from the analysis is the percentage of all respondents who are classed as NA in the above table.
The percent who refused to take part in the survey is the percentage of all respondents for whom the method of data collection (Field 4, METHOD) has been recorded as code 9 'Reply received explicitly refusing to provide information'.
The percent medical, dental or veterinary graduates is the percentage of the eligible population whose subject of study is medicine or dentistry or veterinary science, i.e. are in the Joint Academic Coding System (JACS) subject group A, or whose principal subject is coded D100 or D200.
The percent graduates from sandwich courses is the percentage of the eligible population whose mode of study is recorded as sandwich.
Benchmarks
The benchmarks for the employment indicator need to take into account different factors from those used for the other indicators, and also need to use a different set of groupings for most of the factors.
The factors used are shown in the table below, together with the number of categories for each factor. The table also includes the categories used for age and gender. As with the other benchmarks, age on entry is defined as the age of the student as at 30 September of the academic year of entry to the institution. Categories for the other variables are shown in the subsequent tables. The calculations for the benchmarks use the same method as for the other indicators.
Factors used in the 2007/08 employment benchmark
| Factor | Number of categories | Definition | |
| Subject of study | 18 | ||
| Entry qualifications | 10 | ||
| Ethnicity | 5 | ||
| Age on entry | 3 | Under 21 / 21 and over / unknown | |
| Gender | 3 |
Male / Female / Indeterminate | |
Subject of study categories
| Subject of study | JACS subject area codes |
| Medicine & dentistry and veterinary science | 1, 4 |
| Subjects allied to medicine | 2 |
| Biological sciences | 3 |
| Agriculture & related subjects | 5 |
| Physical sciences | 6 |
| Mathematical sciences | 7 |
| Computer sciences | 8 |
| Engineering & technology | 9 |
| Architecture, building & planning | A |
| Social studies | B |
| Law | C |
| Business & administrative studies | D |
| Mass communications & documentation | E |
| Languages | F |
| Historical & philosophical studies | G |
| Creative arts & design | H |
| Education | I |
| Combined subjects | J |
Entry qualification categories
| Entry qualification 2007/08 | Qualent2 code |
| A levels and equivalents with unknown / not applicable tariff pts | 39, 40 |
| A levels / AS levels / Scottish Highers with up to 160 tariff points or Baccalaureate | 39, 40, 47 |
| A levels / AS levels / Scottish Highers with over 160 and up to 200 tariff points | 39, 40 |
| A levels / AS levels / Scottish Highers with over 200 and up to 230 tariff points | 39, 40 |
| A levels / AS levels / Scottish Highers with over 230 and up to 290 tariff points | 39, 40 |
| A levels / AS levels / Scottish Highers with over 290 tariff points | 39, 40 |
| Foundation or Access course | 29, 43, 44, 45, 48, 72 |
| VCEs, VCEs and A-levels or Highers, ONC or OND (including BTEC & SQA equivalents) | 37, 38, 39, 40, 41 |
| Higher education qualification | 01, 02, 03, 04, 05, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15
16, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 30, 31 |
| Other, including none and unknown | 55, 56, 57, 94, 97, 92, 93, 98, 99 |
Because few of the students included in this indicator are entrants in the current year, coding frames used prior to 2007/08 are the main source for the factor definitions for entry qualifications.
Ethnicity categories
| Categories | HESA codes (Field 10, ETHNIC) | |
| White | 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 19 | |
| Black | 21, 22, 29 | |
| Asian | 31, 32, 33, 34, 39 | |
| Other | 41, 42, 43, 49, 80 | |
| Unknown | 90, 98, 99 | |
Note that due to the increased number of graduates who have the ETHNIC variable coded as mixed race or other, from 2007/08 they have been separated out from the unknown category.
Rounding strategy
Due to the provisions of the Data Protection Act 1998 and the Human Rights Act 1998, HESA implements a strategy in published and released tabulations designed to prevent the disclosure of personal information about any individual. This strategy involves rounding all numbers to the nearest 5. A summary of this strategy is as follows:
- 0, 1, 2 are rounded to 0
- All other numbers are rounded to the nearest 5.
So for example 3 is represented as 5, 22 is represented as 20, 3286 is represented as 3285, while 0, 20, 55, 3510 remain unchanged.
This rounding strategy is also applied to total figures; the consequence of which is that the sum of numbers in each row or column will rarely precisely match the total shown.
Average values, proportions and FTE values prepared by HESA will not be affected by the above strategy, and will be calculated on precise raw numbers. However, percentages and indicators calculated on populations which contain less than 20 individuals will be suppressed and represented as a blank value.
Enquiries
Press: Call 01242 211120 or email pressoffice@hesa.ac.uk.
General enquiries should be sent to piteam@hesa.ac.uk.
Enquiries regarding the Performance Indicators Steering Group (PISG)
should be directed to the HEFCE Press Office on 0117 931 7307
