Introduction - First Destinations 2000/01

This publication is one of four reference volumes from the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA), which present statistics about the publicly-funded higher education institutions (HEIs) of the United Kingdom (UK).

The statistics in this volume are derived from data collected from publicly-funded HEIs in the UK by HESA. The source data set contains information about the first destinations of students who obtained higher education (HE) qualifications during the 2000/01 academic year and who had studied for these primarily full-time. Notes on Tables and Definitions sections are included at the back of this volume.

The figures throughout the volume exclude students whose domicile is non-EU overseas, those obtaining higher education qualifications from further education (FE) colleges and those who studied with private and independent HE providers.

The other reference volumes published by HESA are:

Students in Higher Education Institutions - which contains statistical data about all aspects of students in HEIs, including their examination results. Tabulations also cover subjects of study at undergraduate and postgraduate levels. This publication is aimed at those seriously interested in finding out about issues concerning students in HE.

Resources of Higher Education Institutions - which draws on HESA's collection of data about finance and staff of HEIs. Tabulations are included which record and analyse the income and expenditure of universities and colleges (with data shown at institution level) and also about the characteristics of academic staff.

Higher Education Statistics for the United Kingdom - which is published in conjunction with National Statistics and which presents an overview of HE from a statistical perspective, including statistics about applications, participation, institutional finance, staffing, student awards and loans.

The Agency also makes available a number of other related products. More information about HESA's other publications is set out at the end of this volume.

While HESA publishes and commissions others to publish extensively from the data it collects, it is recognised that specific requirements by some interested parties may not be addressed. Therefore, the Agency undertakes to provide a service to answer enquiries about the data collected, for which a charge will normally be levied.

Due to the provisions of the Data Protection Act 1998 and the Human Rights Act 1998, HESA now implements a strategy designed to prevent the disclosure of personal information about any individual. These tabulations are derived from the HESA non-statutory populations and may differ slightly from those published by related statutory bodies. This strategy involves rounding all numbers to the nearest 5. A summary of this strategy is as follows:

1. 0, 1, 2 are rounded to 0
2. 2. 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.

Total figures are also subject to this rounding methodology; the consequence of which is that the sum of numbers in each row or column will rarely match the total shown precisely. Average values, proportions and FTE values prepared by HESA are not subject to the above strategy, and will be calculated on precise raw numbers. However, percentages calculated on populations which contain less than 50 individuals will be suppressed and represented as '..' as will averages based on populations of 7 or less. Further details are included in the definitions.

First Destinations of Students Leaving Higher Education Institutions 2000/01

Information has been obtained from 241,290 qualifiers out of a possible 303,790 a response rate of 79%: this is higher than 1999/2000 (77%). From 1999/2000 onwards a single fixed reference date (3 January) was adopted and the period over which data are collected and also the mechanisms used for its collection were restricted. Information about first destinations has been linked to information already held by HESA about students and their studies to enable the analyses set out in this volume to be generated.

This section analyses some of the data contained in the main tables of the volume and presents summary statistics and selected key points.

Key Points

• Of the 241,290 former HE students whose destination was known, 68% (163,965) reported their first destination as employment in 2001, which was the same as in 2000.
• 5% of qualifiers in 2001 were assumed to be unemployed, no change from the previous three years.
• 18% of UK domiciled first degree graduates were reported to be studying or training. Among postgraduates, males aged under 25 were more likely (14%) to continue in education than females aged under 25, females aged over 25 or older males,7%, 5% and 7% respectively.
• UK domiciled first degree qualifiers in medicine & dentistry at 91% and education at 88% were most likely to have entered UK employment. Qualifiers in law, at 32%, were least likely to have entered UK employment although they were most likely to continue study or training.
• 14% of UK domiciled males with other undergraduate qualifications entered occupations classified as managers & administrators compared with 4% of females with these qualifications.
• At postgraduate level the figures for those qualifiers of UK domicile in employment are dominated by those working in the education sector (accounting for 15,940 of the 29,950 education sector total) and of which 97% was within the professional occupations category.
• Among those with other undergraduate qualifications, over 60% were working in the health & social work sector of whom 93% held associate professional & technical posts.
• 59% of UK domiciled qualifiers in employment were in paid full-time UK employment and employed on contracts terminating after 30 September 2002 or not fixed term.
• UK domiciled female first degree qualifiers formed the largest single group who went on to further study or training; they were most likely (50%) to study postgraduate diploma and certificate courses, including Postgraduate Certificates in Education (PGCEs), or undertake professional training.

Chart 1 and Table A detail the activities of all students for whom HESA has received first destination information. Some 64% of respondents indicated that employment (including self-employment) was their main activity, 19% were studying or undertaking training and 5% were assumed to be unemployed.

After obtaining an HE qualification, females were more likely to obtain employment than males, particularly at the other undergraduate level where 66% of home domiciled females were working in the UK compared with 40% of home domiciled males. For the relatively small number of other EU students with other undergraduate qualifications, this position is even more pronounced with females being six times as likely as males to have taken up UK employment.

Other EU students are generally more likely to have found employment outside the UK, particularly those with postgraduate qualifications (36% of males, 39% of females) although 5% (625) of UK domiciled male postgraduates in the survey were also working abroad.

Turning to unemployment, the highest rates were among UK domiciled first degree graduates, particularly males (8%). The lowest unemployment rate (for UK domiciled students) was for females with other undergraduate or postgraduate qualifications which stood at 2%.

A continuation of study or training was the most likely activity for UK domiciled males with undergraduate qualifications other than first degrees. 50% of such males (and 28% of females with the same background) were so identified. Around a fifth of first degree graduates were continuing their studies or training while postgraduates, particularly UK domiciled females (6%), were least likely to do so.

The remainder of this summary concentrates exclusively on UK domiciled qualifiers.

At postgraduate level, females in the younger age group are slightly more likely to be in UK employment than older female qualifiers (87% and 85% respectively); the reverse is true for males (77% and 80%). At first degree level younger qualifiers are more likely to be employed than those aged 25 & over, irrespective of gender. The largest age related discrepancy occurs for those with other undergraduate qualifications, where older qualifiers are around one and a half times more likely to be in employment than those aged under 25.

Less than 1% of UK domiciled HE qualifiers at other undergraduate level were working abroad, however, 3% of first degree graduates aged under 25 were. Older first degree qualifiers were less likely (1% of females, 2% of males) to be employed abroad. Among postgraduate qualifiers the reverse applied with some 6% of males and 3% of females aged 25 & over working overseas compared with 2% of females and 3% of males in the younger age group.

Further study or training was most likely to be undertaken by other undergraduate qualifiers, particularly males aged under 25 (58%). Of the qualifiers at this level, females aged 25 & over were least likely (14%) to continue their studies. For first degree graduates, in the under 25 age group 19% of females and 18% of males were reported as studying or training. Among postgraduates, males aged under 25 were more likely (14%) to continue in education than males 25 & over (7%), females under 25 (7%) and females 25 & over (5%).

As an outcome, for those obtaining a first degree, unemployment was most likely for male and female graduates aged 25 & over (10% and 7% respectively) and males aged under 25 (8%). The lowest unemployment rate (2% for both categories) was experienced by females who achieved undergraduate qualifications other than first degrees, and those with a postgraduate qualification

Table C relates first destination to subject area studied. At postgraduate level the overall percentage of qualifiers in UK employment was 83%. Those who studied education make up 55% of all postgraduate qualifiers in UK employment and, with 95% in UK employment, they are more likely to be working than other postgraduates. The proportion of postgraduate qualifiers in UK employment otherwise ranges from 55% of those who studied languages to 86% of those who studied librarianship & information science. Similarly, since only 1% of those with an education qualification at this level undertake further study or training, the average of 7% for all postgraduates masks the fact that some 13% of other postgraduates continued their studies or training. 30% of those who obtained a humanities qualification, 26% of those who gained a languages qualification and 24% of those who gained a law qualification entered further study or training compared with 3% of qualifiers in librarianship & information science and 5% of qualifiers in business & administrative studies.

Among those with first degrees there was considerable variation in the proportion of those in employment; qualifiers in medicine & dentistry (91%) and education (88%) were most likely and qualifiers in law (32%) least likely to be working in the UK. At 8%, qualifiers in languages were more than twice as likely to be working abroad as qualifiers in any other subject area. As a counterpart to the proportions in employment at this level, those who were least likely to continue to study or train were those who studied librarianship & information science (8%), medicine & dentistry (8%), business & administrative studies (8%) or education (6%).

By far the most likely to continue study or training were former law students (55%) but almost 30% of those who qualified in physical sciences or humanities also continued studying or were undertaking training. Unemployment rates at this level varied from 12% of qualifiers in computer science, 9% of qualifiers in both librarianship & information science and creative arts & design (the fourth largest group of first degree qualifiers) to 0.2% of medicine & dentistry qualifiers.

Among the remaining undergraduate qualifiers, those who studied subjects allied to medicine stand out as having by far the highest proportion of their number in UK employment (91%). The next most employed group of such qualifiers are those who studied medicine & dentistry (78%). At the other end of the scale, those least likely to be employed, former law, mathematical sciences and business & administrative studies students, (18%, 21% and 24% respectively) were also the most likely to be continuing to study or training; around 70% in each case. Former students of humanities (16%) and librarianship & information science (10%) have the highest unemployment rate with veterinary sciences and medicine & dentistry having none.

These subject differences are influenced by the training structures of many professions. Since the number of medicine & dentistry students is strictly controlled and planned centrally to meet national manpower requirements, it is not surprising that very few of those qualifying in medicine & dentistry are unemployed. Some qualifications at both undergraduate (B.Ed., etc.) and postgraduate (PGCE) level in education lead directly to professional accreditation so qualifiers do not need to undertake further study. Similarly, many of the undergraduate qualifications in the subjects allied to medicine group lead directly to professional accreditation (nursing for example). Qualifiers in law, however, need to continue professional training after graduation for entry to the profession.

Table D relates to those in employment, the level of qualification to the type of occupation they entered (Standard Occupational Classification (SOC)).

At first degree level there is a fairly close parity between the proportions of males and females who entered the different occupation classifications although some 19% of females entered clerical & secretarial positions compared with only 14% of males. At this level there were also significant proportions entering personal & protective services and sales occupations which, together, accounted for 14% of females and 12% of males.

For those with undergraduate qualifications other than first degrees, there was generally greater diversity in the broad types of occupations entered by males and females than at the other levels although there was a concentration in the associate professional & technical grouping (78% of females and 43% of males).

Table E maps qualifiers' occupations by both the Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) (the business sector of the organisation) and the SOC. At postgraduate level the figures are dominated by the education sector, which accounts for 15,940 of the 27,315 total; almost all (97%) of which were in the professional occupations classification. The next largest category, which is predominated by those from the business and computing subject areas, is property development, renting, business & research activities and employed 3,595 qualifiers, 53% of whom were in the professional occupations classification. Similar proportions of those employed in the manufacturing (46%), public administration & defence/social security (48%) and health & social work (59%) sectors, which are the other major employers of postgraduates, are classified as professional occupations.

At first degree level, the property development, renting, business & research activities sector employed the largest number of graduates (23,095 or 19% of the total) but with a wider spread of occupations represented, 30% professional, 23% associate professional & technical, 22% clerical & secretarial occupations and 18% managerial & administrative. At 70%, education again employed the highest proportion in professional occupations, followed by mining & quarrying (54%). Health & social work along with other community, social & personal service activities employed the highest proportions in associate professional & technical posts (44% and 38% respectively). Graduate employment in manufacturing, agriculture & forestry and transport, storage & communication was more broadly spread across the occupational classifications. Two sectors, electricity, gas & water supply and financial activities stand out as employing the largest proportions of their first degree graduate employees in clerical & secretarial posts, both at 40%.

Among those with other undergraduate qualifications, 66% were working in the health & social work sector of whom 93% held associate professional & technical posts. Other features of the industry/occupation matrix at this level are; 53% of those working in the financial activities sector had clerical or secretarial occupations, 36% of those working in hotels & restaurants held managerial or administrative posts and 52% of those working in wholesale & retail trade were in sales occupations.

Table F analyses employment primarily by duration of contract and mode of employment. Some 59% of those who were employed were in full-time paid work employed in the UK and were on contracts that terminated after 30 September 2002 or were not fixed term; for those with other undergraduate qualifications this figure rose to 72% for females and 65% for males. At both first degree and postgraduate levels, females working full-time were slightly more likely to be employed on contracts that terminate between 1 April 2002 & 30 September 2002 than males. Females with qualifications at all levels were also more likely to work part-time (and on contracts that terminate after 30 September 2002 or are not fixed term) than men, while males with undergraduate qualifications were more likely to be self-employed than females.

Table G takes a closer look at qualifiers going on to further study or training. Three quarters of these are first degree qualifiers of whom 58% are female. These females form the largest single group going on to further study or training (18,815) and were most likely to study postgraduate diploma and certificate courses, including PGCEs or undertake professional training (50%). Male first degree qualifiers were more likely than females to study for higher degrees, particularly those by research (17% of males and 9% of females undertaking further study or training).

92% of the 7,370 qualifiers with other undergraduate qualifications who went on to further study or training were studying for first degrees. As might be expected, postgraduate qualifiers formed a relatively small proportion of those continuing with further study or training (2,360 or 6%).

HESA cannot accept responsibility for any inferences or conclusions derived from the data by third parties.