Graduate Outcomes for Postgraduates 2017/18 — Policy Briefing

In this UKCGE Policy Briefing, we provide a summary of graduate outcomes for Postgraduate (Research) and Postgraduate (Taught) respondents using HESA’s Higher Education Graduate Outcomes Statistics: UK, 2017/18.

Graduate Outcomes for Postgraduates 2017/18 — Policy Briefing

Following the publication of HESA’s Higher Education Graduate Outcomes Statistics: UK, 2017/18, this UKCGE Policy Briefing provides a summary of graduate outcomes for Postgraduate (Research) and Postgraduate (Taught) respondents.

This briefing refers to HESA’s Statistical Bulletin released on 18 June 2020, which offers what HESA refers to as experimental statistics” and covers UK higher education providers (HEPs). Data is collected from graduates approximately 15 months after HE course completion and includes data on 47% of the target population” (361,215). It is unclear whether this response rate is evenly distributed across graduates at different levels of study. The survey covers students who completed their studies between 1 August 2017 and 31st July 2018.

Graduate Outcomes for Postgraduates 2017/18

Summary

The Graduate Outcomes 2017–18 shows that a Doctorate or a Taught Masters qualification is beneficial on several different measures. On average, respondents with those postgraduate qualifications were:

  • 9% more likely to be employed and 3% less likely to be unemployed than those with an undergraduate qualification
  • 42% more likely to be earning £30k+
  • And 6% more likely to agree that they are using what they learnt in their studies in their current activity.

However:

  • 40% of Doctoral graduates were likely to be in fixed-term employment, compared with 18% of Taught Masters graduates and 19% of those with an Undergraduate qualification.

Download the full Policy Briefing (PDF) >