Student Data

Graduate Outcomes Survey

HESA works with UK universities and colleges to enable all graduates to make their voices heard, using the Graduate Outcome survey to share perspectives. Through data collection and analysis expertise it reveals the bigger picture of the career paths and opportunities taken by recent graduates, to drive innovation in higher education. All graduates who completed a higher education course in the UK after August 2017 will be asked to take part in the survey 15 months after they finish their studies.

The survey is delivered by HESA (Higher Education Statistics Agency). HESA has delivered a survey of graduates since 1994/95 under the name of ­Destinations of Leavers from Higher Education (DLHE). DLHE captured the ‘destinations’ (what graduates did after education) of millions of graduates over the years. In 2016, HESA carried out a full review and as a result, created the Graduate Outcomes survey.

This new survey allows a longer period between your studies and the survey, and it provides richer insight from more meaningful but subjective questions. It asks you to not only state facts about where you’re at and what you’re doing, but also asks you to reflect on how education has contributed to where you are today.

It’s not just your university or college that’s listening to you, the survey has large-scale national significance too. It helps the Government, charities, journalists, researchers and others to understand the higher education sector and the state of the graduate labour market.

If you would like to know more about the Graduate Outcomes Survey please have a look at the Graduate Outcomes website.

National Student Survey (NSS)

The NSS has two predominant aims; to provide prospective students with information about their chosen courses, and to act as a key driver for improving the student experience by identifying areas for change.

The NSS is part of the Government’s drive to widen access and participation in higher education by providing students with accurate information on available courses, allowing them to make more informed choices about their education.

The NSS is an annual survey open to all full time final year undergraduate students and part time students in their fourth year of a higher education course.

It asks participants how satisfied they are about the level of academic quality in their student experience. Within 22 questions, students are asked to rate their feelings about the following areas on a scale of 1 to 5:

• Teaching quality
• Learning Opportunities
• Assessment and feedback
• Academic Support
• Organisation and management
• Learning resources
• Student Voice

The NSS is commissioned by the Office for Students (OfS), on behalf of the UK funding and regulatory bodies – the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales (HEFCW), the Department for Economy Northern Ireland (DfENI), and the Scottish Funding Council (SFC).

The NSS is undertaken independently by Ipsos. The survey respects the privacy of the students taking part, and as such, individual responses are confidential. Please refer to the FAQs’ ‘Type of questions asked’ section for guidance on preserving your anonymity and that of others in the open-text comments.

Detailed results are passed on to institutions and students’ unions, and summaries of results are also displayed online (Discover Uni) to help inform prospective students deciding on where and what to study.

The results of the NSS are taken seriously by Futureworks and viewed as a positive form of student feedback. As such, they are used to inform the changes and improvements made in future academic years. Student feedback is regularly sought with a view to making improvements within policies and procedures.

You can learn more about the NSS on The Student Survey website

HESA Student Record

The data collected as part of the Student Record is used extensively by various stakeholders and is fundamental in the formulation of funding allocations and League tables.

The Data Futures programme brings together the requirements of two existing data collections – Student Record and Student Alternative Record into a new student data collection specification.

The new data specification has been a product of extensive work with Statutory Customers, HE Providers and sector bodies. The collection specification has been refined through collaborative development to accommodate the needs of Statutory Customers and executed in a way as to minimise the resulting impact upon providers.

In practice this requires Futureworks to send data for all full-time and part-time undergraduate designated courses. First year and continuing students domiciled in the UK, EU and other overseas countries on these courses must be reported.

This information is necessary to assist The Office for Students with the performance of its functions relating to higher education, including the provision of student support, and to facilitate compliance with the Department of Education’s Public Sector Equality Duty

For more information on the Current Student Record Collection you can find it on the HESA Collection Site