Early Destinations of Students Qualifying from Scottish Higher Educations Institutions 2012-13

3. Time Series Analysis

3.1 Destinations over time

From 2011-12 onwards HESA re-designed the DLHE survey to collect richer information from leavers particularly regarding their activities on the survey date. Further details are provided in section 2.1 of the Methodological Notes.

These changes limit the direct comparability of the 2012-13 results to 2011-12 data only. Data from previous years is provided as a guide only.

The number of leavers from Scottish HEIs in UK employment six months after graduating increased by 1 percentage point in 2012-13 (66 per cent) when compared with 2011-12. (Table 12, Figure 9). Over the three years from 2009-10 to 2011-12, the proportion of leavers from Scottish HEIs in UK employment six months after graduating was around 65 per cent. It previously dipped to 63.6 per cent in 2008-09. In the same year, the proportion of leavers in further study increased to 22.5 per cent before stabilising at around 19 per cent for the following four year period. Against the backdrop of the recent UK recession, these trends suggest that relatively more leavers entered further study after graduating in 2008-09 (perhaps reflecting the weakness or perceived weakness of the UK job market at that time) but that this shift was not observed in subsequent years.

Figure 9: First destination of leavers from Scottish HEIs: 2007-08 to 2010-11, 2011-12 to 2012-13

NOTE: The comparability of the time series is limited by changes implemented from the 2011-12 DLHE survey onwards. Further details are provided in the Methodological Notes (2.1).

Source: Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA)
Reference: Table 1 and Table 12

3.2 Scotland Performs - National Indicator

'Scotland Performs' measures and reports on progress of government in Scotland in creating a more successful country. There are 50 'National Indicators' which track this progress, one of which tracks progress against the Scottish Government's aim to 'Increase the proportion of graduates in positive destinations'.

Note that, for the purposes of this indicator, positive destinations are defined as 'Managerial and Professional' level jobs in Scotland, or continued study. The indicator was defined in this way to capture the extent to which the learning and skills graduates acquire during their time in higher education in Scotland are put to immediate and effective use.

In 2012-13 65.7 per cent of Scottish postgraduate and first degree leavers from Scottish HEIs were in positive destinations 6 months after graduating (Table 8). This is a 1.3 percentage point increase on the proportion of 2011-12 leavers in positive destinations, indicating a maintaining performance rating. This is in contrast with the trend in previous years when the percentage of Scots graduates in positive destinations 6 months after completing their course fell year on year from 71.3 per cent in 2006-07 to 63.5 per cent in 2010-11. For more information on Scotland Performs click on the link below.

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/About/Performance/scotPerforms/indicator/graduates