An overview of survey timings

The following page provides an overview of the timings for the Graduate Outcomes survey. We've also produced a video overview.

Graduates are split equally across the year into four cohorts. These cohorts regulate when the graduates are surveyed. We are running four surveys a year, to distribute the workload and capture data at around 15 months post-graduation (this will, in reality, be 14-16 months post-graduation).

Census week

We have moved from using a census date (as used in DLHE and LDLHE) to a census week for Graduate Outcomes. This will help avoid confusion, for example where graduates have taken a day off sick that week, and mirrors the approach taken in the Australian Graduate Outcomes Survey.

The census week is the first week of the survey period.

Implications

It is recommended that you investigate when your student’s end dates mainly fall. You may find your provider has students whose end dates are distributed across the year, or they may mainly fall into one cohort.

You will also need to investigate when each cohort of students (re-)enrol or (re-)register with you; this will be a crucial time for you to collect comprehensive contact details.

Examples

A student whose end date is in June (a typical pattern for undergraduates) would fall into cohort D and therefore would be surveyed between 1 September and 30 November. The survey would be asking them about their activities in the census week, which is the first week in September.

A student whose end date is in September (typical for postgraduate taught students) would fall into cohort A and therefore would be surveyed between 1 December – 28/29 February, asking them about their activities in the census week, which is the first week in December.