Destinations of Leavers from Higher Education Longitudinal survey

The Destinations of Leavers from Higher Education Longitudinal survey captures information about the activities and perspectives of graduates three and a half years after they completed their studies. The following report analyses the 107,340 responses we received to the winter 2016/17 survey which contacted 2012/13 leavers.

Employment

The two most common industries for leavers to be working in after finishing their studies are Education and Human health and social work activities, although the exact proportions entering these fields does vary quite substantially by level of qualification (see Table 8). For example, almost two-fifths of postgraduates work in the education sector compared to around seventeen percent of first degree leavers.

Just under eighty five percent of graduates are in professional employment three and a half years after graduation, but this does differ by the subject area pursued (see Table 9 and Chart 5). Those studying Science based subjects generally have higher rates of professional employment compared to those studying other subject areas.

The percentage of individuals found to be working in the same industry in the longitudinal survey as in the early survey (which contacts leavers around six months after graduation) is displayed in Table 10 and Chart 6. A large majority of leavers who start their careers in Education or Human health are still employed in these sectors at the time of the longitudinal survey. Other sectors, however, do not see as much stability as these two industries.

Of those who were working in non-professional occupations at the early survey, over sixty percent had moved into professional employment after three years. Furthermore, the majority who had begun their careers in professional work remained in such employment at the point of the longitudinal survey (see Table 11). Those leavers in professional occupations were generally more likely to stay in the same occupation than those in non-professional occupations, as illustrated in Chart 7.

Three and a half years after completing their course, the median salary of respondents was found to be £27,000. Variation is observed by the level of qualification obtained, with the median earnings of postgraduates being far higher than that of first degree or other undergraduate leavers (see Table 12 and Chart 8).

Large disparities in pay were also seen by subject studied, with individuals who studied Medicine and dentistry being the highest paid leavers (see Table 13).

Table 14 analyses the relationship between region of employment in the longitudinal survey and various geographical data from the early survey, as well as the information HESA collected on students during their studies (from the HESA Student record). In most regions, seventy percent or more of graduates who started working in the area after completing their studies are still based there three years later. Individuals from the South East and East of England are least likely to be employed in the same region as they were originally domiciled in prior to starting higher education.

Overall, when examining what factors were important in individuals finding their current role, we see that rather than the qualification or level of educational attainment being crucial, it is the skills, competencies and relevant work experience that provided greater importance in securing employment (see Table 15).

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