1999/2000 First destinations data published by HESA

HESA today releases the reference volume First Destinations of Students Leaving Higher Education Institutions 1999/2000. These most recent statistics available from HESA show that 68% of higher education qualifiers were known to have entered employment in 2000, compared with 66% in 1999. A further 20% were continuing their education or training. The proportion of leavers assumed to be unemployed remained at 5% - the same as for the last two years.

Other key points

• 60% of UK domiciled qualifiers in employment were in paid, full-time UK employment
• Of those obtaining other undergraduate level qualifications, over 60% were working in the health and social work sector
• Those who studied education made up 53% of all postgraduate qualifiers in UK employment
• 65% of home domiciled female undergraduates were working in the UK compared with 39% of home domiciled males
• The property development, renting business and research activities sector, which includes those organisations in the business and computing areas, employed the largest number of graduates – 23% of the total in employment.

Notes for editors

1. The Reference Volume First Destinations of Students Leaving Higher Education Institutions 1999/2000 provides a statistical reference of the first destinations of students leaving Higher Education in the UK for 1999/2000.
2. The HESA FDS Target Population 1999/2000 includes all UK and EU domiciled students obtaining relevant qualifications during the period 1 August 1999 to 31 July 2000, whose study was primarily full-time (which includes full-time and sandwich student modes plus those writing up theses). Non-EU overseas domiciled students are excluded from the 1999/2000 HESA First Destination target population and will be excluded from subsequent data collections..
3. Information was obtained from 233,130 respondents to HESA’s 1999/2000 First Destinations Return, out of a possible 302,710 - a response rate of 77.0%, lower than in 1998/99 (79.5%). This is due mainly to changes in the data collection methodology in order to allow the data to be used in the production of a performance indicator, and the implementation of a small pilot study carried out in parallel to the main data collection.
4. The Reference Volume is available, price £32, from the Customer Services Team, HESA Services Ltd., 95 Promenade, Cheltenham, GL50 1HZ; telephone: 01242 255577. An electronic version on disk is available, price £35 + VAT. A list of other publications is also available from the Customer Services Team.
5. HESA cannot accept responsibility for any inferences or conclusions derived from the data by third parties.
6. Press Enquiries should be directed to the Data Provision Team at HESA, 95 Promenade, Cheltenham, GL50 1HZ; telephone: 01242 211133. Other enquiries about HESA data should be addressed to the Data Provision Team at the same address.

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