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Destinations of undergraduate leavers from higher education at alternative providers in England 2015/16

Statistical First Release Experimental SFR246

This Statistical First Release includes: Summary | Introduction | Key points | Tables | Notes and FAQs | Definitions | View a printable version of this SFR

Summary

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This Statistical First Release (SFR) provides details of the destinations of undergraduate leavers from higher education at alternative providers (APs) in England that have successfully completed the designation process (with some exceptions - see the Notes) for the academic year 2015/16.

 

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Destinations of UK and other EU domiciled undergraduate leavers from alternative providers in England by level of qualification obtained 2015/16

 

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Chart 1 - Destinations of UK and other EU domiciled undergraduate leavers from alternative providers in England by level of qualification obtained 2015/16

  • In 2015/16, the percentage of first degree leavers from APs in UK work was 65%, the highest percentage across all levels of undergraduate study.
  • In 2015/16, the percentage of leavers in further study varied by level of qualification obtained, with 57% of foundation degree leavers entering further study.
  • Levels of unemployment also varied by level of qualification obtained. The highest percentage of unemployment, at 11% was amongst HND/HNC leavers.

Introduction

APs are higher education providers who do not receive recurrent funding from the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) or other public bodies and who are not further education colleges. Eligible students can access loans and grants from the Student Loans Company (SLC) on specific courses, referred to as designated courses.

The coverage of the Destinations of Leavers from Higher Education (DLHE) survey consists of all UK, European Union and non-EU domiciled leavers for whom destinations data is expected and sought (see Definitions) from UK HE publicly funded providers and APs with designated courses in 2015/16. Amongst APs submitting HESA data, a small minority of leavers also qualified from non-designated courses, but are included in this SFR (with the exception of Table 2). Non-EU leavers and postgraduate initial teacher training (ITT) leavers are excluded from this SFR.

In 2015/16, there were 8,155 UK and other EU leavers who responded from the target population of 10,465, an overall response rate of 78% (UK 78%, other EU 73%). This overall response rate is the same as that for publicly funded providers. Response rates by level of qualification and domicile are included in this SFR Table 1. For more information on the coverage of the DLHE survey please refer to the Definitions.

Key points

Mode of study

In 2015/16, 62% of part-time leavers from APs were in UK work, compared with 48% of full-time leavers, see Table 1. In comparison, 19% of part-time leavers were in further study, whereas amongst full-time leavers this was 23%.

Salary

Chart 2 shows the median salaries of UK domiciled full-time undergraduate leavers from APs who entered full-time UK paid work, split by sex, professional and non-professional occupations and level of qualification. Amongst those in professional employment, males have a higher median salary than females. This is true amongst both first degree and other undergraduate leavers, although the difference is larger amongst other undergraduate leavers. For those other undergraduate leavers in non-professional employment, again, males have a higher median salary than females. However, this gender pay gap is entirely reversed amongst first degree leavers in non-professional employment.

There was little variation in salaries between first degree leavers and other undergraduate leavers, as shown in Table 6 of this SFR, which is restricted to UK domiciled leavers from APs in England who entered full-time paid work in the UK. The median salary for both first degree and other undergraduate leavers was £20,500.

 
 

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Median salaries of UK domiciled full-time leavers who obtained first degree qualifications from alternative providers in England and entered full-time paid work in the UK 2015/16

 

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Chart 2 - Median salaries of UK domiciled full-time leavers who obtained first degree qualifications from alternative providers in England and entered full-time paid work in the UK 2015/16

Standard Occupational Classification and professional employment

In 2015/16, of the full-time first degree leavers from APs in England who were employed in the UK, 61% were in posts classified as professional employment. The remaining 39% were working in occupational groups classified as non-professional. Sales and customer service occupations accounted for 10% of all leavers in employment, the largest group in the non-professional occupations, see Table 5a.

Of the full-time other undergraduate leavers from APs in England who were employed in the UK, just 35% were in posts classified as professional employment. Caring, leisure and other service occupations accounted for 17% of all leavers in employment, the largest group of all occupations, see Table 5b.

Subject

Chart 3 shows the median salaries of UK domiciled full-time leavers from APs in England who were employed in full-time paid work in the UK, split by level of qualification obtained. Across most subjects studied, those who qualified with a first degree have higher median salaries than those who qualified with an other undergraduate qualification. The two exceptions to this were across those who had studied Law and those who had studied Creative arts & design. Care should be taken when interpreting this chart, due to the small populations that some average salaries have been derived from. Where populations are very small (7 or fewer), median salaries are not displayed.

 

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Median salaries of UK domiciled full-time undergraduate leavers from alternative providers in England who entered full-time paid work in the UK by subject area and level of qualification obtained 2015/16

 

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Chart 3 - Median salaries of UK domiciled full-time undergraduate leavers from alternative providers in England who entered full-time paid work in the UK by subject area and level of qualification obtained 2015/16

In 2015/16, the activities of full-time first degree leavers from APs in England varied between subjects. The subjects with the highest percentages of leavers in employment or further study were Subjects allied to medicine at 92%, Historical & philosophical studies at 89% and Creative arts & design at 89%. Computer science had the lowest percentage of leavers in employment or further study, at 70%, see Table 4.

Amongst full-time other undergraduate leavers from APs in England, the subjects with the highest percentages of leavers in employment or further study were Biological sciences at 96%, Historical & philosophical studies at 94% and Law at 93%. This compared with Business & administrative studies which had the lowest percentage of leavers in employment or further study, at 76%. Note that these percentages are based on small populations.

There were also variations by subject in the industries of full-time first degree leavers who were employed in the UK. Of those with known Standard Industrial Classification, the industry with the largest number of leavers, at 19%, was the Arts, entertainment and recreation industry. Of those who studied Creative arts & design, however, 39% were in this industry, see Table 5a.

Of full-time other undergraduate leavers who were employed in the UK with known Standard Industrial Classification, the industry with the largest number of leavers, at 15%, was Human health and social work activities. The second largest industry, at 13%, was Administrative and support service activities, see Table 5b.


Tables

Table 1 - Destinations of undergraduate leavers from alternative providers in England by mode of qualification, domicile and activity 2015/16

Table 2 - Destinations of alternative provider undergraduate leavers from designated courses in England by mode, activity, sex, age group, disability status and ethnicity 2015/16

Table 3 - Destinations of undergraduate leavers from alternative providers in England by sex, activity and level of qualification obtained 2015/16

Table 4 - Destinations of full-time undergraduate leavers from alternative providers in England by level of qualification obtained, activity and subject area 2015/16

Table 5a - Occupation and industry of full-time first degree leavers from alternative providers in England entering employment in the UK by subject area of degree 2015/16

Table 5b - Occupation and industry of full-time other undergraduate leavers from alternative providers in England entering employment in the UK by subject area of degree 2015/16

Table 6 - UK domiciled undergraduate leavers from alternative providers in England who entered full-time paid work in the UK by level of qualification obtained, sex and salary 2015/16

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Notes and frequently asked questions

Who produced this Statistical First Release?

This SFR has been produced by HESA in collaboration with statisticians from the Department for Education and with support from analysts from HEFCE.

What is an alternative provider and what is a designated course?

Alternative providers (APs) are higher education providers who do not receive recurrent funding from the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) or other public bodies and who are not further education colleges. There are a substantial number of APs, but only those who have successfully completed the designation process are required to submit data to us (except those who only have postgraduate courses designated for disabled students' allowances (DSA) only). This designation process means eligible students can access loans and grants from the Student Loans Company (SLC) on specific courses, referred to as designated courses.

What is the coverage of alternative providers in the Destinations of Leavers record 2015/16?

From 2015/16, the reporting of the elements of the AP Student record for Unistats was compulsory. In order to fulfil the requirement to return data for publication on Unistats, providers were required to complete the Destinations of Leavers from Higher Education (DLHE) record, with the exception of those providers who were on ‘teach out’ when the DLHE data was collected. ‘Teach out’ means that new students were unable to access student support, but existing students were able to continue their studies with access to funding until completing. Under these circumstances, DLHE data was not expected to be returned (see data intelligence for more detail).

What populations are excluded from this SFR?

Data for non-EU leavers is excluded from the SFR, so as to align with our Statistical First Release on the Destinations of Leavers from publicly funded providers. Among APs, there were 970 non-EU leavers in the target population in 2015/16. Of those, 580 responded, an overall response rate of 60%. This is higher than the 34% response rate of non-EU leavers from publicly funded providers.

How to use the charts

Some of the charts within this SFR are interactive. Those that are have an option immediately above the chart to filter by level of qualification. The charts react to whichever option is chosen, changing the data accordingly. The title of the chart also changes to describe exactly what data is displayed. To aid interpretation of the charts, it is possible to hover over any of the given data points to read exact figures. To see all the data behind a chart, there is an option just below each chart to ‘Get the data’. All the figures used within that chart are displayed in csv format.

In the data behind the charts, 0, 1, 2 are rounded to 0. All other numbers are rounded up or down to the nearest multiple of 5. Percentages are calculated on unrounded data and are rounded to the nearest whole number. This means percentages may not sum exactly to 100%. Salary data is rounded to the nearest £500.

How to view a printable version of this SFR

There is an option at the top of the page to 'View a printable version of this SFR'. Clicking that will turn all the interactive charts into static images, and you can then print the page in the same way you would any other webpage. If you want to return to viewing interactive charts, you will need to refresh the page.

Why is this publication "Experimental Statistics"?

The Code of Practice for Official Statistics defines Experimental Statistics as: "new official statistics undergoing evaluation. They are published in order to involve users and stakeholders in their development and as a means to build in quality at an early stage".

For most APs, this is the first year that they were required to submit data on the destinations of leavers. We are continuing to explore and understand the quality of the data that has been returned and the data will be continually evaluated for its stability, reliability and completion over the forthcoming annual collections. This SFR has been published as we realise that there is great interest in the destinations of leavers from higher education at APs. We welcome feedback on the content, structure and usefulness of the statistics presented in this SFR; please email any comments or suggestions to Rebecca Haslam.


Definitions

The data presented in this SFR is based on the 2015/16 HESA Destinations of Leavers and AP Student records. The statistics in this SFR are derived by HESA from data collected from the APs in England who were required to submit data to HESA for the purpose of Unistats. Please note that The University of Buckingham is an AP but returns data through the HESA Student record and is omitted in this SFR.

Destinations of Leavers data was prepared in June 2017 using the following versions of the datasets:

  • 2015/16 Fixed AP Student dataset, May 2017 version
  • 2015/16 Original Destinations of Leavers dataset, May 2017 version

We also publish a full set of definitions relating to the data. These include:

For data intelligence, please see the data intelligence web page.

Press enquiries should be directed to the Press Office at HESA, 95 Promenade, Cheltenham, GL50 1HZ, +44 (0)1242 211120, [email protected]. General enquiries about the data contained within this SFR should be addressed to Rebecca Haslam, Senior Information Analyst, HESA (at the same address), +44 (0)1242 211133, [email protected].

Ends

 

Embargo

13 July 2017, 9:30

Coverage

England

Themes

Children, education and skills

Issued by

HESA, 95 Promenade, Cheltenham, GL50 1HZ

Press enquiries

01242 211120

Public enquiries

01242 211133

Statistician

Rebecca Haslam

Email

[email protected]


Department for Education