The Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA)

The Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) is the official agency for the collection, analysis and dissemination of quantitative information about higher education in the UK.

HESA, amongst other things provides an overview of post graduation employment rates for UK domiciled students obtaining their 1st degree from full time courses at UK universities. The employment figures also include students who have gone on to further study.

DiscoverUni  a UK government backed site provides a further breakdown by university/degree and shows what type of employment students have gained post graduation.

If you type in the course/institution (university) your child is interested in, it will tell you post graduation employment details.

Research Statistics

The REF (Research Excellence Framework) is the system for assessing the quality of research in UK higher education institutions.

The 2014 REF was conducted jointly by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE), the Scottish Funding Council (SFC), the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales (HEFCW) and the Department for Employment and Learning, Northern Ireland (DEL).

The review covers 36 subject areas and ranks the quality of research submitted by each university, in these specific subject areas. The research presented to REF is then ranked 1-4 stars.

The assessment provides accountability for government investment in research and produces evidence of the benefits of this investment. It also provides benchmarking information and establishes reputational benchmarks, for use within the higher education sector and also for use by prospective students and their families.

Research output and its quality assessment is a significant factor in the overall ranking of Universities as measured by THE and Shanghai Jaio Tong rankings.