Introduction

As a producer of official statistics, HESA is under an obligation to demonstrate the quality of its statistical outputs. This obligation is both a formal one, inasmuch as it is specified in Section Q3 of the Code of Practice for Statistics[1], and a more pragmatic one, inasmuch as, by demonstrating the quality of its outputs, we can provide our stakeholders with information which will support them in the use of our statistics.

HESA data is used by a wide variety of stakeholders, and their need for high quality data provides us with further motivation for demonstrating the quality of our statistical products. Data from the Graduate Outcomes survey is used not only by HE providers and prospective students, but also by a wide range of policy makers, researchers, and media outlets, and we strive to meet the needs of this varied group of stakeholders.

The statistics derived from the first two iterations of the Graduates Outcomes survey were published under the ‘experimental statistics’ label. This indicated that the statistics were undergoing a period of evaluation and development. HESA determined that this process had been successfully completed in 2022 and consequently that the experimental statistics label could be removed from that year’s edition onwards. From the 2022 edition this release therefore reverted to being a ‘standard’ Official Statistics product.

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