Written answers

Tuesday, 20 June 2017

Department of Education and Skills

Higher Education Authority

Photo of Thomas ByrneThomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail)
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506. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if he will request the HEA to undertake a detailed longitudinal survey on graduate career outcomes (details supplied). [27412/17]

Photo of Richard BrutonRichard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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The Higher Education Authority’s (HEA) first destinations survey has been in place since 1982 and surveys graduates nine months after graduation. This survey is widely recognised to be of benefit to policy makers, students, guidance counsellors, teachers and many others with an interest in education.

The first destinations survey is a single point-in-time survey and does not capture the longer-term outcomes from higher education to graduates and society more generally. In order to obtain longitudinal data on the employment outcomes of graduates, the HEA has begun working in collaboration with the Central Statistics Office (CSO) to link HEA graduate data with data from the Revenue Commissioners and Social Protection to form a longitudinal administrative study of graduate outcomes. The data will show employability and further study outcomes, sectors of employment and earnings (amongst other outcomes) of graduates up to 5 years after graduation.

This work will represent a landmark contribution to the evidence base on higher education outcomes, providing a rich longitudinal information set on graduate employment, unemployment and earnings outcomes. The report of this longitudinal administrative study is due to be published in Quarter 4 2017.

It should also be noted that the CSO’s Survey on Income and Living Conditions (SILC) and Quarterly National Household survey (QNHS) also cover a broad range of issues in relation to employment and unemployment rates; earnings and occupations; and income and living conditions of the population. Although this data does not routinely focus on levels of educational attainment, it provides a significant data source on the principal economic situation of the population.

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