Back in November 2021, HESA outlined the approach we were taking to evaluate and continuously improve the Graduate Outcomes survey. One of the elements that we noted would be the subject of future work was additional exploration of those who were in further study at the time of completing the questionnaire or who had undertaken some form of interim study between graduation and the 15-month survey point.
During the NewDLHE review consultation period, respondents indicated their interest in seeing us link HESA Student data to the Graduate Outcomes survey to explore the benefits and efficiencies this might bring. With this goal in mind, we completed a small-scale investigation in Spring 2021 into the extent of mismatch between survey and administrative records (i.e. HESA Student data) for those who reported they were in further study at 15 months in the first year of Graduate Outcomes data, covering 2017/18 qualifiers. Our key conclusion from that research was that there seemed to be a high degree of alignment between responses to the survey and HESA administrative records (see section 3.5.2.1 of the 2021 quality report for more information).
