Data used to track graduates
This publication uses data from the Longitudinal Education Outcomes (LEO) dataset, which links information about students, including:
- Personal characteristics such as sex, ethnic group and age
- Education, including which schools, colleges and higher education providers graduates attended, the subjects they studied, and qualifications achieved
- Employment and earnings
- Benefits claimed
By combining this information, we can track the progress of graduates as they enter the labour market. Additional information about the LEO dataset is provided in the accompanying methodology note, including explanations about the quality of the data and match rates.
The LEO dataset is generated each year using the latest available data. This means that each annual LEO dataset includes not only an additional year of data, but also some revisions to previous years as a result of changes in the latest available data. When comparisons are made in this publication between earnings and employment outcomes in 2022-23 and previous years, we compare the most recently revised figures that are in this latest release, rather than previously published figures.
Coverage
Coverage is first degree graduates and postgraduates from all Higher Education Providers in England. These include Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) and Further Education Colleges (FECs) for all time periods, and Alternative Providers (APs) for the time periods for which data are available; designated APs were not required to return student level data to HESA prior to the 2014-15 academic year.
Graduates and postgraduates
We include information about those who graduated with a first degree qualification (bachelor’s or integrated masters degree), a level 7 (masters), or a level 8 (doctoral) postgraduate degree. Study at level 7 is split into level 7 (taught) and level 7 (research).
Whilst we include comparisons between first degree graduates and postgraduates, please note that differences in outcomes between first degree graduates and postgraduates cannot be attributed solely to the impact of having a postgraduate or first degree. This IFS report published in September 2020 (opens in a new tab) finds that first degree graduates who progress to study at postgraduate level are not a representative subgroup of first degree graduates, as, on average, they are the higher attaining graduates.
Years after graduation
We report the employment and earnings outcomes of graduates specific numbers of years after graduation (YAG). We define one year after graduation as the tax year that follows on after the previous academic year ended, as graduates are unlikely to have been engaged in economic activity for the whole tax year that overlaps with their graduation. For example, for those who graduated in the 2020-21 academic year, we report outcomes during the 2022-23 tax year as one year after graduation.
Most of the text, charts and tables below report outcomes during the 2022-23 tax year for the cohort that graduated during the 2016-17 academic year, five years after graduation. The EES table builder and underlying data include outcomes for multiple cohorts of graduates after one, three, five and ten years after graduation.
Country of domicile and international graduates
We refer to graduates who paid home student fees as UK domiciled. We refer to graduates who paid international student fees as EU or non-EU domiciled, and as international graduates.
Employment outcomes for UK domiciled graduates
Employment and/or further study outcomes for UK domiciled graduates are calculated as a percentage of matched graduates who were not living overseas for the majority of the particular tax year. Matched graduates are those whose Higher Education Statistics Authority (HESA) student records have been successfully matched to the Department of Work and Pensions' (DWP's) Customer Information System (CIS) or a HESA further study record. A small proportion of graduates cannot be successfully matched, and these graduates are excluded from the calculations, as are graduates living overseas during the particular tax year, even if they are matched. Further explanation is provided in the accompanying methodology document.
Graduates are grouped by their employment outcomes into the following categories:
- Sustained employment, further study or both - this category is broken down into three smaller categories:
- Sustained employment only - graduates who have a record of sustained employment but no record of further study.
- Sustained employment with or without further study - graduates with a record of sustained employment, regardless of whether they also have a record of further study or not.
- Further study with or without sustained employment - graduates with a further study record regardless of whether they have a record of sustained employment or not. This category is equivalent to the difference between the ‘sustained employment, further study or both’ and ‘sustained employment only’ categories.
- No sustained destination - graduates who have an employment or out-of-work benefits record in the tax year of interest but were not classified as being in ‘sustained employment’ and do not have a further study record.
- Activity not captured - graduates who have been successfully matched to DWP’s CIS but for whom there are no records of employment, out-of-work benefits or further study during the tax year of interest. It's likely that a high proportion of graduates whose activity is not captured were living abroad during this tax year.
Further information about how we categorise employment outcomes is provided in the ‘Employment Outcomes’ section of the methodology.
Note that the outcomes presented in this release are ‘raw’ outcomes. There are numerous factors that can influence employment and earnings outcomes of graduates apart from getting a degree. The raw outcomes presented in this release do not control for differences in the characteristics or experiences of students that might influence outcomes, and this should be borne in mind when drawing any conclusions. For example, some subjects may tend to have students with higher prior academic attainment, which in itself can influence employment and earnings outcomes, but the raw outcomes by subject presented in this release do not account for this.
Employment outcomes for international graduates
International graduates are graduates whose fees are paid from a country other than the UK.
We calculate employment and further study outcomes for international graduates as a proportion of all international graduates living in the UK during the relevant tax year, regardless of whether their HESA records are successfully matched to DWP, HMRC and SLC data. This approach differs from that used to calculate employment outcomes for UK domiciled graduates because match rates between HESA records and DWP/HMRC and SLC data are much lower for international than they are for UK graduates. This is because the LEO dataset uses National Insurance numbers to match records, and international students who have no intention of working or claiming benefits in the UK are less likely to apply for a National Insurance number. Please see the methodology ‘Data and coverage' section for further details.
In line with how we calculate employment outcomes for UK domiciled graduates, we exclude from these calculations international graduates whom we believe were living overseas during the majority of the particular tax year. Employment outcomes for international graduates therefore do not reflect the likelihood of an international graduate being in employment or achieving a certain level of earnings, but rather, the average outcome when an international graduate has remained in the UK. Further explanation is provided in the accompanying methodology document.
Median earnings
Earnings are reported only for graduates who have been in ‘sustained employment only’ during the particular tax year. They do not include the earnings of graduates who are earning and also in further study or whose employment has not been sustained.
For both UK domiciled and international graduates, earnings are reported for those who were in ‘sustained employment only ’ in the UK. Therefore, among international graduates, the results only cover those who have stayed on and worked in the UK.
We use the median rather than the mean to indicate average earnings. Unlike the mean, the median is not affected by relatively small numbers of very high earners. For this publication, it is a better indication of typical earnings than the mean. However, we do note that an average value (such as the median) tells us nothing about the variation in earnings within a particular group. We provide upper and lower quartiles for earnings as well as the median, which provides an indication of this variation.
Job quality
For the first time, we present information about job quality as well as employment outcomes and earnings. Job quality is not measured in the LEO data, but in the Graduate Outcomes Survey (GOS), which is distributed by the Higher Education Statistics Authority (HESA) to graduates 15 months after graduation. The survey includes three questions that are designed to measure some key aspects of job quality, which graduates who have a job answer. The measure of job quality encompasses how meaningful their job feels to the graduate, whether their job fits in with their future work plans, and whether they use skills learned during their studies in the job. More information on HESA's job quality measure is available here: The value of a non-financial job quality measure in exploring graduate outcomes - Summary | HESA (opens in a new tab).
The GOS job quality data has been matched to the LEO dataset in order to provide the breakdowns of job quality by earnings and region included in this publication. More details are provided in the methodology section.