Employment

Responses to the consultation support the idea of a universal graduate survey, but with changes to content and timing. Initial analysis of the 208 responses will be used to develop firm proposals which will be put out for further consultation.

76% of all survey respondents were in employment. Of these employed leavers 59% were on permanent or open-ended contracts while 25% were on fixed-term contracts. 4% of employed leavers were self-employed, 3% were on zero-hours contracts, 2% on internships, and 1% were starting up their own business.

The statistics are based on the Destinations of Leavers from Higher Education (DLHE) survey which asked leavers from higher education in 2014/15 what they were doing six months after graduation.

Overall, 93.9% of UK domicile full-time first degree leavers were in employment and/or further study six months after graduating.

Further to the Performance Indicators released earlier this year (Thursday 30 September 2004) HESA is now able to release the Employment Indicator Table E1. This table has been released later than the other Performance Indicators as the data on which it is based becomes available later in the annual cycle. This indicator looks at the employment outcomes of UK domiciled graduates from full-time first degree courses six months after completing their programme.

Of the 248,005 full-time leavers who completed HESA’s Destinations of Leavers from Higher Education (DLHE) survey, 72.7 per cent had found employment. The number of leavers who were both working and continuing to study was 60,060 or 24.2 per cent (this figure is included within employment). 15,295 (6.2 per cent) were assumed to be unemployed.