1. education

Why we’re the
wise choice
for DLHE
The Destination of
Leavers from Higher
Education (DLHE)
Survey
For more information,
please call 0207 250 3035
Or email
dlhesurvey@iffresearch.com
The Destination of Leavers from
Higher Education (DLHE) Survey
Come
over to
IFF
Turning an obligation into an opportunity
Anyone who has ever had any involvement in
delivering a DLHE survey knows how much
work is involved. And how stringent the HESA
response targets are.
When you work with IFF, though, you will also
discover how much you can benefit from the
DLHE survey. And how much easier the whole
process can be.
As experts in destination tracking, IFF can help
you reach more of your graduates cost-effectively.
Crucially, you’ll see how well matched the
knowledge and skills you are teaching are to the
needs of today’s employers.
This information will help you fine-tune your
courses, attracting more students and building
your reputation as a seat of learning.
And if you’re thinking that working with a
professional research agency comes at a
high cost, you’re wrong. A growing number of
universities are now working with IFF because
they recognise they can save significant time and
money by outsourcing the DLHE survey to us. So
why not come over to IFF too?
We hope this guide will show you how we
can turn your DLHE survey obligation into
an opportunity to reach new heights in the
learning you deliver.
The Destination of Leavers from
Higher Education (DLHE) Survey
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Sweet
dreams are
made of
this...
Easing your DLHE load
Many universities still try to handle DLHE
internally. But an increasing number are
outsourcing the survey to free up resources
better used elsewhere.
DLHE can be a daunting task for any university to
handle on its own. There are a number of highly
specialist tasks involved, not least coding the data
and preparing it for submission. And because
accuracy is so vital, it really pays to work with
people who have proven expertise in delivering
DLHE to the highest standards.
Working with IFF will take a large load away from
you. We have a specialist DLHE team that will
handle the whole process highly professionally.
Or we can just take responsibility for those parts
where you have identified the need for some extra
support.
We will provide you with a dedicated DLHE
manager who will keep you updated throughout
the survey process and who will work to ensure
you get the highest possible response. They will
also ensure you receive the data in the right format
for submission to HESA and for your internal use.
DID YOU KNOW...
Of all the graduates who drop out of the
DLHE survey before reaching the end,
around 25% do so when asked what their
job is.
Our experience suggests that for many it’s
not so much the nature of the question that’s
the problem as the way in which answers are
recorded. We know how to make it easier
for graduates to respond to such questions,
while still maintaining the level of detail that
universities and HESA require.
The Destination of Leavers from
Higher Education (DLHE) Survey
Take the
smart
approach
DHLE
= EZ2
IFF
We know how to help you reach
more of your students
Graduates are among the most sought-after
audiences for research studies in the UK. Yet
stringent HESA targets oblige you to reach as
many of them as possible. So how can IFF help
you meet and even exceed this standard?
Firstly, we ensure we make it easy for graduates
to take the survey. Key to this is making the
survey experience a simple one. This starts with
our specially adapted online DLHE survey, which
includes pre-loaded data to save the graduate
time (and with no need for them to enter a
PIN or Student Number either). Crucially it is a
‘smartphone friendly’ survey too - a must have
feature for today’s graduates.
For those who don’t take the online route,
or respond to the postal survey, our team of
experienced DLHE interviewers are there to take
them through the questions over the phone. Here
the advantage of using professional interviewers
is that we are experts in the art of persuading
graduates to a positive response.
With a 120-booth telephone interviewing centre
in London we can contact a large number of your
graduates quickly and cost-effectively, wherever
they are living. This includes overseas-based
graduates, as we also have a team of multi-lingual
interviewers.
DID YOU KNOW...
As many as a quarter of graduates
responding to the DLHE online survey “by
invitation” do so on a smart device (mobile
phone or tablet).
The Destination of Leavers from
Higher Education (DLHE) Survey
Added insight through bespoke
questions and reporting
Would you like to add supplementary questions
to ask your graduates about the education
you’ve provided them with? And how would
you like to be able drill down into their answers
to find the key insights? Work with IFF and you
can do both.
Firstly, we can phrase and add bespoke questions
to the survey to help you identify any areas of
particular interest or concern.
This will help you achieve strategic objectives
like developing your curriculum in line with what
employers want. Here our expertise in employer
research can further help you adapt your courses
to the current employer landscape. You could
also ask graduates about their future learning
intentions, and whether they would recommend
you to their peers. Their answers will help you
target relevant messages to future undergraduates
and postgraduates.
Secondly, we can provide bespoke reporting.
We can help convert the raw data the survey
generates into the precise insights you are looking
for, presented in a variety of ways such as charts,
infographics and formal reports. We can also
break the information down by individual faculty or
student group to help you assess specific areas of
performance. And we can incorporate time series
data to reveal any emerging trends.
It’s all about helping you gain the learning you
seek from your graduates to help you move
forward as an educational establishment. And,
needless to say, we can also deliver the data to
you in the format required for submission to HESA.
DID YOU KNOW...
Most UK employers find graduates to be
well prepared for work, but as many as 1 in
5 don’t; and in certain sectors and certain
areas this figure is even higher. We can help
you find out what employers in your area
think.
42%
We have the
answers. And
the questions.
26%
9%
23%
The Destination of Leavers from
Higher Education (DLHE) Survey
Develop a
superiority
complex
We can help you give your university the edge
In an increasingly competitive sector, the
profile and image of your university is
vital. For more and more universities the
DLHE survey is an important source of
information and insight. Work with IFF and
we can help you to develop a crucial edge
to your offer.
Higher education at the moment is marked
by change, uncertainty and ever increasing
competition.
This places great pressure on HE managers,
planners and administrators as they strive to
ensure that that their university retains and
improves it standing in the market.
One thing we can be sure of in this changing
world is that we at IFF have the experience
and expertise to help you to make the most
of your DLHE survey and to streamline your
submission.
So talk with us about how we can deliver
better results for you, and for HESA, quickly
and affordably. And, most importantly, how
we can help you turn the DLHE survey from
an obligation into an opportunity for your
university.
DID YOU KNOW...
Online response rates can be increased by
as much as 5 percentage points depending
on the time of day they are sent out.
Maximising online response is the easiest
way to reduce your DLHE costs.
The Destination of Leavers from
Higher Education (DLHE) Survey
Come under
our wing
Why IFF is the wise choice
IFF Research is one of the largest independent
research companies and a leading research
provider for the education sector in the UK.
Our clients include the Higher Education
Statistics Agency (HESA), the Higher Education
Funding Council for England (HEFCE) and the UK
Commission for Employment and Skills (UKCES).
We have been contracted by HESA to conduct
the Longitudinal DLHE, tracking what university
leavers are doing 3½ years on, for each of the four
sweeps that have been conducted since the series
was initiated in 2006.
HEFCE contracted IFF to conduct the early DLHE
for Further Education Colleges between 2010 and
2012. And we are currently running early DLHE
surveys for one of the UK’s largest universities.
We have also conducted learner tracking studies
for HEFCE, Scottish Funding Council (SFC), the
Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) and the
Department for Business Innovation and Skills
(BIS) among others. For BIS we are currently
exploring patterns in demand for postgraduate
study and establishing a basis against which
future changes in demand might be tracked.
We are ISO-accredited for data security and our
PGP-encrypted data-sharing facility means you
can transfer leavers’ contact details with ease and
with maximum security.
And we’re easy people to work with. So why not
call us now to see how we can help you.
NEXT STEPS
To discuss your requirements and request
a quote, please call Charlie Taylor on
0207 250 3035
Or email charlie.taylor@iffresearch.com
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