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Graduate Outcomes Subscription

HESA is now part of Jisc. Jisc is now the data controller of personal data previously controlled by HESA. Pages on the HESA website are being updated to reflect this change. Please see updated Privacy information.

The subscription model for Graduate Outcomes has changed from February 2022.

Our guiding principle in developing a new Graduate Outcomes fee model has been to balance our ongoing commitment to providing the best possible service for the sector as a whole with ensuring we recover the costs of running the survey.

Three years of actual experience and data have provided sufficient evidence to compare how original plans measured up against actual costs. For example, the original fee model had been based on a 40:60 split between the costs of telephony:online responses. Actual costs over the last three years show more of a 60:40 split towards the telephony mode of completion, which has increased costs.

The new model also seeks to mitigate the differing effects on individual providers:

  • The previous standard per graduate fee did not reflect the disparity in response rates that the survey generates between UK/EU and non-EU domiciled international graduates.
  • In addition, the new model better considers policy in the UK nations. Questions mandated by statutory bodies have now been factored into the fee model.

From February 2022 (for the C20071 collection), we started operating a new Graduate Outcomes fee model that:

  • Retains a fixed administration fee per provider (to cover the fixed costs of the service which include things like the management of the data specification, the provider support service and the analysis and publication functions) but at a reduced amount.
  • Introduces separate per graduate core fees for UK/EU graduates and non-EU domicile international graduates.
  • Introduces a premium to the core fee for question bank K (see below for more information on question banks) mandated by OfS for England, but not by its equivalents in Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland. Additional premiums for mandated question banks will continue to apply for as long as they are mandated.

The annual fixed and per graduate rates to apply (with last year’s comparative figures) are:

  Current
August 2023 - July 2024
Previous
February 2023 - July 2023
  Fixed fee Per UK/EU graduate Per non-EU domicile
international graduate*
Fixed fee Per UK/EU graduate Per non-EU domicile
international graduate*
England £425 £6.51 £4.36 £425 £6.51 £4.36
Scotland £425 £6.30 £4.15 £425 £6.30 £4.15
Wales £425 £6.30 £4.15 £425 £6.30 £4.15
Northern Ireland £425 £6.30 £4.15 £425 £6.30 £4.15
* Graduates with a HOMEEUOS = 3

Invoices for the C21071 collection reflect student numbers from 2021/22. As student numbers for Northern Irish Further Education Colleges are not yet available to HESA, we will use student numbers from 2020/21.

Opt-in question bank costs

We offer each institution the option to select additional opt-in question banks (pre-determined supplementary questions that sit outside of the core set of survey questions). The opt-in question banks are each individually priced and depend on two factors: the opt-in bank selected and the number of students in the Graduate Outcomes population that are eligible for the question set. 

For the 2021/22 (C21071) collection, some statutory customers have chosen to mandate certain question banks for providers. These will appear as pre-selected in the provider portal and cannot be changed. Providers can have up to a total of three opt-in question banks, including those mandated by statutory customers.

A breakdown of each individual bank cost can be found below:

Opt-in question banks Population covered Net cost per graduate in the population VAT Total cost per graduate in the population
I - Finding a job All graduates 21p 4p 25p
J - Net Promoter Score All graduates 21p 4p 25p
K - Graduate Choice All graduates 21p 4p 25p
L - Research Students All research council graduates (as defined in the Student record) N/A – mandated  by all UK statutory customers N/A N/A
M - Newly Qualified Teachers All teacher training graduates (as defined in the Student/Student Alternative records) 38p 8p 46p
N - Careers Service All graduates 10p 2p 12p

Providers will be responsible for calculating the cost of their selected opt-in question bank(s) based off the above information and will be invoiced the cost of their selection after the opt-in bank deadline.