Statistics Publication Notice: Early Destinations of Students Qualifying from Scottish Higher Education Institutions 2011-12

Key Findings

Statistics on the first destinations of leavers from Scottish Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) are published today by Scotland's Chief Statistician. This publication reports on the destinations of 2011-12 leavers, 6 months after qualifying.

This publication is an update of the 'Early Destinations of Students Qualifying from Scottish Higher Education Institutions 2010-11' publication, issued on the 25^th September 2012. It presents information from the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) Destinations of Leavers from Higher Education (DLHE) survey, for Scottish domiciled leavers and leavers from Scottish HEIs. The 2011-12 DLHE survey was changed substantially from previous years which limits comparability over time. Consequently, this publication primarily presents data for 2011-12, with some limited time series analysis.

Key Findings

• 89.3 per cent of leavers from higher education courses at Scottish HEIs were in employment or further study/training 6 months after completing their course.
• 65.0 per cent of leavers from higher education courses at Scottish HEIs were in UK employment 6 months after completing their course. A further 5.4 per cent were employed overseas, with 19.0 per cent engaged in further study or training and 6.2 per cent believed to be unemployed.
• 75.1 per cent of leavers in UK employment were employed in Managerial and Professional occupations
• 76.4 per cent of leavers in UK or overseas employment were employed in Scotland.
• 64.4 per cent of Scots postgraduate and first degree leavers from Scottish HEIs were employed in Managerial and Professional level occupations within Scotland or engaged in further study or training, 6 months after completing their higher education course. This percentage is a National Indicator in 'Scotland Performs'¹.
• Due to changes to the survey in 2011-12, the comparability of the time series is limited. Some information for previous years is provided in Table 12 for reference.

Figure 1: Summary of Key Findings