Chartered Association of Business Schools publishes analysis of Graduate Outcomes data for 2017/2018

The Chartered ABS has carried out an analysis of graduates from ‘Business & Administrative Studies’ under the first wave of results from the new HESA ‘Graduate Outcomes’ survey which is the successor to the Destination of Leavers in Higher Education (DLHE) survey.

‘Graduate Outcomes’ aims to give a wider understanding of the graduate journey than DLHE which was primarily focused on employment status and activity. A set of new ‘graduate voice’ measures were added to the new survey to capture the attributes of ‘eudemonic’ wellbeing relevant to graduates from HE in three dimensions:

• Meaningfulness or importance of the activity to the graduate

• Skills utilisation

• The graduate’s progress towards future goals

Our analysis of the first wave of ‘Graduates Outcomes’ primarily focuses on students who completed a ‘Business & Administrative Studies’ course although some comparisons are given with graduates from other subject areas.

The results are based on students who graduated in the 2017/18 academic year during the period of 1 May to 31 July 2018 and who participated in the survey approximately 15 months later in September 2019. The longer time lag between graduation and survey participation is intended to generate data that is more reflective of students’ activities after completing their studies. Under DLHE students were contacted to complete the survey 6 months after graduation.

Read and download our full report

Below are some of the key findings from our analysis:

• For ‘Business & Administrative Studies’ 84% of first degree graduates from the UK were in full-time employment 15 months after graduating which is higher than for any other social science subject.

• At postgraduate level, 86% of ‘Business & Administrative Studies’ leavers from the UK were in full-time employment 15 months later which is exactly in line with the average across all subject areas but is slightly lower than two other social science subjects: Law (90%) and Education (89%).

• For first degree graduates in ‘Business & Administrative Studies’ from the UK and the EU the proportions stating that further study is their most important activity is 7% and 19%, respectively, which is lower than the average for graduates from all subject areas of 13% and 26%, respectively.

• From the UK-domiciled first degree graduates in ‘Business & Administrative Studies’ stating that study was their most important activity 15 months later, by far the most popular choice of further qualification was a taught higher degree, with 59% undertaking this type of qualification.

• The proportion of UK-domiciled first degree graduates from ‘Business & Administrative Studies’ agreeing that their current activity utilises what they learnt in their studies was 56%. This is below the average of 61% for first degree graduates from all subject areas but higher than the average for several other social science subjects.

• Of all UK-domiciled degree leavers (first degree and postgraduate combined) reporting that they were running their own business, 23% of these graduated from the ‘Business & Administrative Studies’ subject area, which is more than from any other subject.

Read the full report now