Title | Positive destinations of Scottish domiciled graduates from Scottish Higher Educations Institutions |
Associated target | Direction of travel: Increase in percentage of graduates in positive destinations |
Brief description | Percentage of Scottish domiciled graduates from Scottish Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) that are in "graduate level jobs" (Elias & Purcell definition - see below) in Scotland or in continued study after graduating. This measure captures how graduates of Scottish HEIs meet the demands of employers for highly qualified labour in Scotland. The indicator also captures the extent to which Scottish employers offer sufficient opportunities to Scottish graduates to fulfil their aspirations in Scotland. This indicator is currently updated using a proxy measure, which will remain as our main measure until such time as a new source can be identified (see below). Data for the proxy measure (which records destinations 6 months after graduation) has been collected on a consistent basis since 2002-03 (Destinations of Leavers from Higher Education Institutions, - Higher Education Statistics Agency). It is intended to replace this source once a new measurement of longer-term destinations, with sufficient historic data to allow a robust-time series, has been fully investigated. |
Strategic Objective(s) to which indicator relates | Smarter |
More detailed definitions | |
Definitions of keywords/denominators | Positive destinations: In graduate level occupations as defined in the report: Elias & Purcell 'SOC (HE) A Classification of occupations for studying the graduate labour market' (Institute for Employment Research, Warwick) or studying 6 months after graduating. Scottish Domiciled Graduates from Scottish HEIs: students with a Scottish pre-study address, obtaining a qualification at postgraduate or first degree level from a Scottish Higher Education Institution (excluding the Open University). Percentages are calculated excluding refusals and excluding those who did not give sufficient detail of location or occupation. |
Evidence Source | Scottish Government analysis of data from the "Destinations of Leavers from Higher Education Institutions Survey, Higher Education Statistics Agency "; www.hesa.ac.uk This analysis is available through the Attainment and Destinations National Statistics Publication, last produced by the Scottish Government in September 2011 - http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2010/09/28110151/0 |
Baseline and Past Trends | The baseline for the main indicator is the percentage of graduates in positive destinations in 2006. |
Proxy for main indicator (Baseline and Past Trends) | The baseline for the proxy measure is the academic year 2002-03 (as this corresponds to the year of graduation for those graduates included in the main indicator and will show the relation, for that year, between the proxy measure and the main indicator) at which point the percentage of Scottish graduates in positive destinations 6 months after completing their course was 61.5%. During the following 3 years this proportion rose to 70% and remained at that level until 2006-07. The proportion of graduates in positive destinations then declined each year: to 68.4% in 2007-08, 66.5% in 2008-09 and 63.1% in 2009-10. |
Methodology for Data Source | The proxy data source of this indicator is the DLHE survey (described above), details of this survey process can be found through the following link: DLHE method. |
Proxy for main indicator (Methodology for Data Source) | The DLHE is a census, therefore there are no confidence intervals for the figures derived from this. Details of the methodology can be found through the link above. |
Data Ownership and Quality Assurance | Data is paid for and owned jointly by; Scottish Government, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE), Training Development Association (TDA), Department of Health (DH), Scottish Funding Council (SFC), National Assembly for Wales (NAW), Higher Education Funding Council Wales (HEFCW), Department for Employment and Learning (Northern Ireland) (DEL NI), Research Councils UK and Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA). Quality assurance is conducted by HESA, a producer of official statistics. |
Publication of Data | National Statistics Publication on Graduate Destinations - http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2010/09/28110151/1 HESA also publish statistics from DLHE in relation to graduate destinations -website www.hesa.ac.uk/publications |
Methodology for Recent Change Arrow on Scotland Performs | The evaluation of performance based on this proxy measure is based on the following consideration. Any difference in the percentage within +/- 2 percentage points of the previous year's figure suggests that the position is more likely to be maintaining than showing any change. An increase of 2 percentage points or more suggests the position is improving; whereas a decrease of 2 percentage points or more suggests the position is worsening. The threshold of 2 percentage points chosen is based on an assessment of the data available at this time, and may need to be reviewed as more information becomes available in the future. |
Future issues or reviews | It is intended to replace this proxy source once a new measurement of longer-term destinations, with sufficient historic data to allow a robust-time series, has been fully investigated. The Annual Population Survey (APS) contains a number of questions that could ultimately be used to measure long-term graduate destinations. However at this stage there is insufficient time-series data available to assess how best to judge changes over time in terms of improving or worsening performance. |
Proxy for main indicator (Future issues or reviews) | The proxy indicator will be available every year and will continue to be published to provide indications of trends for short-term destinations and arrow updates. |