In this section, learn about:
Employability in Context
Find out what we mean by employability at the University of Southampton, how the University makes decisions around employability and useful research and publications
Graduate Outcomes and League Tables
Find out how destinations data contributes to league table positioning, and where you can find detailed data
Labour Market Information
Key documents providing insight into the national and local labour market for graduates
Graduate Outcomes and League Tables
Graduate Outcomes is a national survey which gathers information about the activities and perspectives of graduates 15 months after they’ve finished their studies. Graduate Outcomes has replaced the previous Destinations of Leavers from Higher Education survey (DLHE).
- Graduate Outcomes collects data from all awarded leavers from Higher Education institutions including undergraduates, postgraduates, UK, EU, international students, part-time and full-time students
- The data, specifically the ‘professional destinations’ figure (which indicates those in graduate level roles, or graduate level further study) is often referred to as graduate prospects. It is one of the key indicators in league table positioning
- Published data specifically reflects the outcomes of UK domiciled graduates, who studied full time at undergraduate level
- Of this group, we usually hear back from 60% of graduates and year on year more than 95% are either employed or in further study
- Our professional destinations figure was 84.0% in 2020 (2017/18 leavers surveyed Sep-2019) and 79.2% in 2021 (2018/19 leavers surveyed in Sep-2020)
- Average professional level full-time starting salary for a graduate from University of Southampton was £28k when surveyed in 2020 (Published 2021)
- Graduate outcomes, and data from previous DLHE surveys can be found in PowerBI.
When undertaking comparison with other universities, the University of Southampton draws on data from the Guardian University League tables.
*This figure excludes graduates who stated that they were doing something else like travelling, caring for family members or due to commence employment
Labour Market Information
The following key documents give a good insight into the national and local labour market for graduates.
1. Graduate Labour Market Statistics, June 2021. Published annually by the Department for Education. This publication gives a detailed picture of employment rates over time for various occupations and sectors. Information is further analysed by factors such as age, disability, ethnicity and gender.
2. What do Graduates Do? Prospects Luminate 2021/22. Insight and analysis from the UK's largest higher education survey - including subject-by-subject data, commentary and analysis from the Prospects Luminate team and AGCAS, plus an overview by Jisc's graduate labour market expert Charlie Ball.
3. The Graduate Market in 2022, produced by Highfliers. This gives an annual review of graduate vacancies and starting salaries at some of Britain’s leading employers.
4. The Office for National Statistics produces regional and local authority breakdowns of changes in UK employment and unemployment.
5. Graduate Outcomes data as published by HESA in the public domain.