Graduates' subjective wellbeing

HE Graduate Outcomes Data Graduates' subjective wellbeing

Experimental statistics

On this page: Graduates' subjective wellbeing by graduate activities | subject area of degree | classification of first degree | sex | domicile

All tables and charts include a link underneath allowing you to download the data you see on screen, including filters. Many tables also include a link to download the complete source data as a machine-readable CSV file.

What is Subjective Wellbeing?

The Graduate Outcomes survey asks four questions that were developed by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) to measure people’s own assessment of their general wellbeing. The same questions are used by ONS and other survey organisations across many social surveys.

There are many factors that influence individuals’ state of wellbeing and data users are advised not to draw causal relationships between higher education experience and wellbeing approximately 15 months after HE course completion. Published statistics are aggregated to a high level to ensure that all responses remain anonymous.

HESA has agreed with the Graduate Outcomes steering group that we will not publish nor disseminate 2017/18 subjective wellbeing data at provider level. We intend to undertake further work to better understand the characteristics of this data over the coming years.

See Definitions: Graduate Outcomes for information on the banding of responses in published charts.

Please see this blog post for more detailed discussion of subjective wellbeing in Graduate Outcomes: Asking graduates how they feel