Happy New Year! Welcome to the latest edition of the HEA Statistics Newsletter.  This edition will focus on important updates on the Graduate Outcomes Survey, a new collaboration between the HEA and Student Universal Support Ireland (SUSI), and our Access Our Data dashboard.

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Graduate Outcomes Survey

The Graduate Outcomes Survey is Ireland’s annual survey of graduates from universities, technological universities, institutes of technology, and three colleges. Graduates are surveyed nine months after graduation. For the Class of 2023, the survey was distributed in Spring/Summer 2024, with a census date of 31 March 2024. For the class of 2023, the response rate is 49.3%.

Overall, there has been a decrease in employment with corresponding increases in further study and unemployment compared with the Class of 2022. The overall picture is still one of a strong labor market for recent graduates.

• Of the 70,852 graduates, 55.0% identify as female and 45.0% identify as male.

• The most common fields of study are Business, Administration & Law (25.1%), Health & Welfare (15.6%), and Arts & Humanities (11.5%).

• The most common programme type is Undergraduate Honours Degrees (50.2%), followed by Taught Masters (27.6%).

   

Employment

• Overall, 80.2% of graduates are in employment nine months after graduation. For the class of 2022, this was 83.0% and for the class of 2021, this was 81.9%.

• Employment is highest amongst Education graduates (90.3%) and lowest for Arts & Humanities graduates (64.5%).

Further Study

• The proportion of graduates pursuing further study has increased to 10.9% for the Class of 2023, up from 10.2% for the Class of 2022.

• The proportion pursuing further study is highest for Arts & Humanities graduates (21.0%) and Natural Sciences, Mathematics & Statistics graduates (17.0%) and lowest for Information & Communication graduates (5.2%).

   

Unemployment

• For the Class of 2023, 6.5% of graduates are unemployed nine months after graduation.

   

Student Grant Recipients:  HEA-SUSI Collaboration

The HEA and Student Universal Support Ireland (SUSI) have collaborated on a new analysis of grant recipients. This data provides a comparison of the demographics, progression, and outcomes of grant recipients with non-recipients, to can better assist and support policy-making across the third-level system. This analysis is complementary to the HEA Deprivation Index Score analysis conducted already and serves to strengthen the evidence base on socio-economic disadvantage in higher education.

The report considers the student life cycle, from entry to post-graduation outcomes, from the lens of grant status. There are four separate analyses reported on in this suite of reports:

1. Equity of Access Statistics

2. Student Demographic Statistics

3. Non-progression Analysis

4. Graduate Outcomes Statistics

Tá an tuarascáil chomhoibríoch ón ÚAO agus SUSI maidir le faighteoirí deontais mac léinn ar fáil anois ar shuíomh gréasáin an ÚAO.

Access Our Data

The Access Our Data Dashboard has been updated with the latest 2023/24 data.  The new dashboard layout allows users to filter data according to a number of fields, and there is also a download summary data option.

Data relates to students and graduates for the most recent five years. Data for the National College of Ireland (NCI) is included in the data for the first time in 2023/24. Dashboards show there are 265,905 total enrolments in 2023/24 (all modes of study) and 90,290 graduates in 2023.

If you have any queries relating to student or graduate data, you can check our dashboard or email us at [email protected].

Student Records System (SRS) Review

The HEA’s main database of students and graduates is the Student Records System (SRS) and the work of the SRS 2.0 project continues. A Data Definitions, Standards & Classifications subgroup has formed, with two working groups established from this subgroup – one focusing on Student fields, and one focusing on Course related fields. The review of current and new data fields has commenced, with the aim of improving data definitions, classifications, and guidance for the SRS. The work of the Database & Technical subgroup is expected to commence in Q1/Q2 2025.

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