Metadata document SFR18/2017: Employment and earnings outcomes of higher education graduates by subject and institution: experimental statistics using the Longitudinal Education Outcomes (LEO) data This is the third in a series of higher education data releases from the Department for Education’s new Longitudinal Education Outcomes dataset. It focuses on the employment and earnings outcomes in the tax year 2014/15 for those who graduated with an undergraduate degree in 2008/09, 2010/11 and 2012/13 from a GB higher education institution (HEI). Data is presented for 23 subject areas and split by sex, subject studied and HEI and is, for context, accompanied by information on prior attainment and the Participation of Local Areas (POLAR) classification. Please see the SFR text for more detailed information about the measures used in this publication. Coverage This publication looks at those who graduated with a first degree qualification from GB higher education institutions (HEIs). First degrees are also known as bachelor’s degrees. We have only looked at those classified as UK domiciled prior to entry to higher education. Figures are presented for all graduates and have not been split by full-time or part-time mode of study. On average, we have been able to link over 95% of each graduate cohort to tax and/or benefit data. All figures are based on UK tax, benefit and student records only: activity of those who move abroad to work or study after graduating is not reflected in the employment or further study figures. Years after graduation The time periods used in this publication are one, three and five years after graduation, which refers to the first, third and fifth full tax year after graduation, respectively. For instance, for the 2012/13 graduation cohort, the figures one year after graduation refer to employment and earnings outcomes in the 2014/15 tax year. This time period was picked as graduates are unlikely to have been engaged in economic activity for the whole tax year that overlaps with the graduation date. Subject areas The subjects covered by this publication are based on version 3.0 of the Joint Academic Coding System (JACS). In previous publications, we presented results for Economics separately from the other subjects in Social studies. Following consultation on the subject splits, we are additionally extracting Nursing from the other Subjects allied to medicine, Psychology from the Biological sciences and English studies from the other languages. We therefore cover the following 23 subjects: JACS code Subject 1 Medicine & Dentistry 2 Subjects allied to medicine (excluding nursing) B7 Nursing 3 Biological sciences (excluding psychology) C8 Psychology 4 Veterinary science 5 Agriculture & related subjects 6 Physical sciences 7 Mathematical sciences 8 Computer science 9 Engineering & technology A Architecture, building & planning B Social studies (excluding economics) L1 Economics C Law D Business & administrative studies E Mass communications & documentation F Languages (excluding English studies) Q3 English studies G Historical & philosophical studies H Creative arts & design I Education J Combined It is important to note that, even with these additional splits, each JACS subject area can still include a diverse range of subjects, some of which will lead to significantly different employment and earnings outcomes. For example, ‘Physical sciences’ contains courses ranging from Physics to Forensic & archaeological sciences. We have not attempted to split the JACS codes down further as this would lead to an increase in the amount of data being suppressed. Employment outcomes Outcomes are presented for graduates who have been successfully matched to the Department for Work and Pensions’ Customer Information System (CIS) or if they have been matched to a further study instance on the HESA Student Record. In this publication, these individuals are referred to as matched. Graduates who have not been matched to CIS or a further study record are referred to as unmatched. Graduates who have been matched are then placed in one of five outcomes categories. These are: Activity not captured: graduates who have been successfully matched to CIS but do not have any employment, out-of-work benefits or further study records in the tax year of interest. Reasons for appearing in this category include: moving out of the UK after graduation for either work or study, earning below the Lower Earnings Limit or voluntarily leaving the labour force. No sustained destination: graduates who have an employment or out-of-work benefits record in the tax year in question but were not classified as being in ‘sustained employment’ and do not have a further study record. Sustained employment only: graduates are considered to be in sustained employment if they were employed for at least one day for five out of the six months between October and March of the tax year in question or if they had a self-employment record in that tax year. To be in the sustained employment only category, graduates must not have a record of further study in the tax year in question. Sustained employment with or without further study: includes all graduates with a record of sustained employment, regardless of whether they also have a record of further study. A graduate is defined as being in further study if they have a valid higher education study record at any UK HEI on the HESA database in the relevant tax year. The further study does not have to be at postgraduate level to be counted. Sustained employment, further study or both: includes all graduates with a record of sustained employment or further study. This category includes all graduates in the ‘sustained employment with or without further study’ category as well as those with a further study record only. Earnings outcomes Earnings are presented for those classified as being in sustained employment and where we have a valid earnings record from the P14. Earnings from self-assessment are not included. Those in further study are excluded as their earnings would be more likely to relate to part-time jobs. All earnings figures have been annualised. For each graduate, the earnings reported for them on the HMRC P14 data for a given tax year are divided by the number of days recorded in employment across that same tax year. This provides an average daily wage which is then multiplied by the number of days in the tax year to calculate their annualised earnings. All earnings presented are nominal. They represent the cash amount an individual was paid and are not adjusted for inflation (the general increase in the price of goods and services). Contextual information There are a number of factors that can influence the employment and earnings outcomes of graduates. In order to aid comparisons between similar universities, we have provided additional data about the characteristics of the students graduating. We have included data on the following characteristics: Prior attainment band: institutions in England are ranked by the median UCAS points of the graduates in a given subject and cohort; the upper quartile of HEIs forms band 1, the middle 50% form band 2, and the bottom quartile band 3. Proportion in POLAR3 quintile 1: graduates in quinitile 1 (most disadvantaged) of POLAR3 as a proportion of those non-mature students for whom we have this information. The contextual data provides useful information where universities have a reasonable proportion of their students included in the measures. For some universities, the contextual data only covers a small proportion of their graduates. We have therefore provided the following coverage indicators alongside the contextual measures. Included in prior attainment band: this column shows the proportion of matched graduates who are included in our calculation of the prior attainment band. As the NPD only contains data on the key stage 5 qualifications obtained by 16–18 year olds in England since 2002 not all graduates will be included in the prior attainment band for each university. Included in POLAR3 quintile 1: graduates for whom we have POLAR3 information on the HESA student record and who were non-mature when entering higher education, as a proportion of matched graduates. We are continuing to investigate how best to compare employment and earnings outcomes for universities that have a low proportion of students covered by the contextual data (mainly universities with a high proportion of mature students). List of variable names and their description UKPRN UK Provider Reference Number. subject Subject studied. sex Sex of graduate. yearsAfterGraduation Number of years after graduation. grads Number of graduates included in calculations. unmatched Percentage of graduates that have been classed as unmatched. matched Number of graduates that have been classed as matched. activityNotCaptured Percentage of matched graduates whose activity could not be captured. noSustDest Percentage of matched graduates with an unsustained destination. sustEmpOnly Percentage of graduates with a record or sustained employment only. sustEmp Percentage of graduates with a record or sustained employment (these graduates may or may not have a further study record in addition to a sustained employment record). sustEmpFSorBoth Percentage of graduates with a record or sustained employment, a record of further study, or both. earningsInclude Number of matched graduates included in earnings calculations. lowerAnnEarn Annualised earnings lower quartile. medianAnnEarn Median annualised earnings. upperAnnEarn Annualised earnings upper quartile. POLARGrpOne Percentage of graduates in POLAR group 1 (of those eligible to be included in POLAR calculations). POLARGrpOneIncluded Percentage of graduates included in POLAR calculations . prAttBand Prior attainment band. prAttIncluded Percentage of graduates included in prior attainment calculations.