HESA completes its Graduate Outcomes line-up

Following on from the successful launch of the provider portal, HESA is delighted to announce that it has now appointed all of the suppliers who will support the delivery of Graduate Outcomes.

In June 2018, we announced Confirmit as our feedback management solution supplier. Confirmit’s technology is widely used to conduct surveys by leading sector bodies, including the Office for National Statistics. It includes a sophisticated online system which is instantly smartphone compatible which is key to the surveying of tech-savvy graduates.

Two other important aspects of the survey are the call centre provider (who will provide telephone support should the primary email attempts fail) and the data classification provider for the coding of occupations and industries that graduates are working in (known as SIC and SOC coding). 

Paul Clark, Chief Executive of HESA said:

“Following extensive due diligence, we’re pleased to announce that IFF Research has been selected to provide the call centre facility for Graduate Outcomes, and that Oblong will provide the SIC and SOC coding. These suppliers will play a critical role in the overall delivery of the survey, and the selection process we have just completed has been appropriately robust.

This is the first year the Graduate Outcomes survey will be operating, and HESA has placed quality at the heart of all procurement activities. IFF Research and Oblong are well known to the sector and have strong track records of delivery, so I’m delighted to welcome them on board.”

Call centre provider: IFF Research 

IFF Research has been one of the research industry’s leading players for over 50 years, with the education sector sitting firmly at its heart for the majority of that time. In recent years, IFF has worked with almost 40 individual HEPs in their delivery of Graduate Outcomes predecessor DLHE, as well as being the survey contractor for all six iterations of the Longitudinal DLHE survey. IFF’s long history and substantial experience means we are absolutely confident that they can provide a robust call centre facility which is a vital channel in ensuring we meet our target response rate. 

Jan Shury, Managing Director at IFF Research said:

“The Graduate Outcomes survey will completely reset the landscape for higher education destinations data, now and for many years to come. We are delighted that HESA and the sector have trusted us to continue to play a central role in this critical project, ensuring that the data captured and shared is of the highest possible quality.”

Data classifications: Oblong

Oblong are business data experts, with their main focus being the classification of businesses and database cleaning/enhancement. They have been SIC coding DLHE for the past 6 years, using specially developed coding software, in combination with a highly experienced manual research team. The classification of Graduate Outcomes is key to allowing analysis and understanding of this large data source, and accuracy and consistency are paramount given the scrutiny and importance of the data.

Dan Whiteman, Managing Director – Oblong (UK) Ltd said

“Oblong are delighted to have been chosen to support HESA with Graduate Outcomes. Having already completed 6 years of DLHE data cleansing and classification for HESA, equating to around 2 million records, we are extremely familiar with the data and its importance.” 

As we get ever closer to the surveying of the first cohort in December 2018, we are continuing to progress at pace, with all suppliers now in place. 

Find out more about Graduate Outcomes