MINI CASE 6.3

Statistics are published annually on Higher Education by the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA), and among these are figures on Destinations of Leavers from Higher Education (DLHE). Since 1995 HESA have undertaken three longitudinal studies to investigate student destinations after they had left Higher Education. The latest of these compares destinations of the 2004/5 cohort with their destinations three-and-a-half years later (in November, 2008). One of the comparisons was on salaries, as detailed in the table below.

The data show improvements in levels of employment and salaries compared to students surveyed two years earlier. This prompted the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) to comment that:

'The survey highlights the benefit of investment in HE by government, employers and students. Over 95 per cent of students are employed or in further study 31/2 years after they graduate; and the median salary of a full time employee was £24,000. There is much to celebrate as these graduates were surveyed in November 2008, around the height of the recession.' HEFCE, 2009