Written evidence submitted by the Higher Education Statistics Agency

Who are the Higher Education Statistics Agency?

The Higher Education Statistics Agency was originally formed in 1993 following the White Paper ‘Higher Education: A New Framework’. It was created to ensure there was greater coherence in the collection and publication of statistics on the sector across the UK.

For approximately three decades, HESA has therefore been the body responsible for assembling, assuring and disseminating information on higher education for all four home nations. In October 2022, it merged with Jisc, thereby creating a single organisation that could meet the data and digital requirements for the sector.

What data do you collect that is relevant to the questions posed by this inquiry?

Each year, all higher education providers across the UK submit information on their students to HESA, with our Student record being an example of an administrative data source. It contains a range of personal and course characteristics, such as where the student lived prior to beginning their higher education programme (i.e. their home postcode) and the location of their provider. Consequently, our data can inform us whether students have left their home region to study in another part of the UK.

Furthermore, given the interest in understanding the public and private benefits of higher education, HESA also administer an annual survey of graduates (known as Graduate Outcomes) that seeks to understand their early career destinations and experiences of the labour market. Qualifiers of a particular academic year are sent a questionnaire fifteen months after they complete their studies, with there being a section in the survey that asks individuals to state their location of work. The survey tends to receive a response rate close to 50%, with independent research carried out by the Institute for Social and Economic Research finding that ‘there is no evidence of substantial non-response bias in the survey data’.

We are submitting evidence to this inquiry, given we hold information that can help to answer the question:

-          Are young people leaving Wales? Why?

What sample do you use to explore whether young people from Wales who enrol into higher education leave the country for study and/or work?

Our sample consists of Welsh domiciled graduates who entered higher education between the ages of 18 to 30 and qualified in either the academic year 2017/18 or 2018/19. They will have responded to the Graduate Outcomes survey fifteen months after graduation and been in paid UK employment at the time of completing the questionnaire. We link Graduate Outcomes responses to data from the Student record, so that we know where the student resided before commencing their course, as well as the location of their provider and employer. This therefore enables us to examine their geographical mobility.

What are the key findings that emerge from your exploration into the geographical mobility of young people from Wales who go into higher education?

1. Moving for study appears to be a key factor behind why young people from Wales who choose to enter higher education initially leave the country. 43% of our sample had studied in another part of the UK.

2. Of those who had studied outside of Wales, 62% find work in a different nation of the UK.

3. The statistics reported in 1 and 2 lead to the result that, among our entire sample, 27% of Welsh domiciled graduates left Wales for study and did not return to the country for work.

4. We observe that a further 9% studied in Wales, but subsequently moved to an alternative region of the UK for employment.

5. We note there is considerable variation in the geographical mobility of students by local authority.

6. Those local authorities that are closer to the border with England tend to see higher proportions of students leaving the country for study and not returning for work.

7. There is a tendency for students who leave the country for study and do not return for work to enrol at providers in neighbouring regions of England.

8. That is, students residing in local authorities in North East Wales (Conwy, Denbighshire, Flintshire and Wrexham) who leave the country for study and don’t return for work will generally move to a higher education provider in the North West of England.

9. Meanwhile, students from Monmouthshire who leave Wales for study and don’t return for work will typically move to a higher education provider in either the south west or south east of England.

The appendix in this document provides further details of the mobility of Welsh domiciled graduates (including at local authority level).

Are there any key limitations of your dataset that we should know of?

Please note that the sample we analyse is limited to those who enrolled and subsequently qualified from higher education. We cannot therefore say anything about young people from Wales who are not graduates.

While our data illustrates that just over one-third of Welsh graduates in the sample leave the country for study and/or work, we are unable to examine the underlying motivations behind why these individuals chose to move for study and/or work.

Furthermore, as our sample is based on a survey that is conducted fifteen months after graduation, we do not know whether Welsh domiciled graduates who are working in other countries of the UK at that time return to Wales at a later stage in their life.

Appendix: Tables of summary statistics

23 August 2023