The open release of Graduate Outcomes data will have been eagerly anticipated by colleagues across the sector who are keen to understand the latest employment trends for 2020-21 graduates and, crucially, understand how their results stack up against those of other institutions.
Given that this is the fourth annual Graduate Outcomes release, getting to grips with this sector data should be a relatively simple matter – but it feels more complicated than it might be.
In previous years, operating HESA’s open data tables has presented some difficulties for even experienced users. And while there’s hope that Jisc will have helped HESA tackle some of the technical gripes (including a strange inability to choose and retain a consistent set of demographic filters), more fundamental frustrations around the way the data is cut are likely to remain.
Here I’m referring to the different approaches to breaking down study profiles taken by HESA and OfS. The latter’s quality framework views provision in terms of sixteen primary study modes levels and providers who have tuned into this way of thinking to help monitor quality compliance and evidence excellence could reasonably expect to see these splits duplicated across HESA’s outputs. Instead, there are several mismatches such as HNC/HND qualifications in HESA’s tables which are not considered separately by OfS, and no mention of apprenticeships or integrated masters courses which are.
