This chapter describes the outcome destinations of graduates and how these destinations vary across the different fields of study and levels of qualification.
Graduate outcomes are analysed one year after graduation for each of the separate graduation years and are also examined for the same graduation cohort between one and ten years after graduation. To provide this longitudinal view, the 2013 cohort is examined in some detail throughout this report as it is the most recent graduation year for which outcomes data after ten years is available. However, other combinations of graduation year and years since graduation are available within the PxStat tables that accompany this release.
There are five categories to describe graduate activities within each calendar year.
‘Employment only’ refers to graduates who meet the criteria for substantial employment or self-employment and have no record of enrolment in higher education within the same year.
‘Employment and Education’ corresponds to graduates that meet the criteria for substantial employment or self-employment and are enrolled in higher education at some point within the same calendar year.
‘Education only’ refers to graduates that are enrolled in higher education but are not classified as being in substantial employment.
‘Neither Employment nor Education’ comprises graduates who are neither enrolled in higher education nor are involved in substantial employment within the year but have some record in an administrative data source for that year. These graduates may have some record of non-substantial employment, may have claimed some benefit over the year, or may be captured in an education source that is not counted in the previous category.
The remaining individuals are categorised as ‘Not Captured’, meaning that they could not be found in any of the administrative datasets for the year in question. Most of this group are assumed to have emigrated, but there is no definitive indicator of emigration available in the administrative data sources.
Although these categories are used in other outcomes-related releases, as noted in the methodology page for the Educational Longitudinal Database, the specific data sources included in each of these categories and therefore their precise definitions can vary by individual release. Please refer to the Background Notes for further details.
A breakdown is included for each of the following plots to show how these outcomes vary when looking at the country of domicile of graduates, either examining the total cohort of graduates or focusing only on those who were resident in Ireland prior to enrolment. Although outcomes for graduates domiciled outside of Ireland are also available to examine in the accompanying PxStat tables, it should be noted that graduates domiciled outside of Ireland were more likely to be missing a valid PPSN as part of their graduation record. Graduates without a valid PPSN are unable to be matched to other data sources and therefore cannot included in these outcomes analyses. The rate of valid PPSN coverage varies by year and according to various factors. This is shown in Table 5.9 in the Overview of Graduates chapter. Total counts of graduates regardless of whether they were able to be matched are also detailed therein.
Overall, the most common individual outcome for 2022 graduates was ‘Employment only’ at around 65%. This was an increase relative to the 2021 graduate cohort when it was 63%.
Around 23% of those graduating in 2022 had re-enrolled in higher education the following year. Most of these (19% of the total cohort) were in substantial employment in addition to being enrolled in education. The total share of graduates in substantial employment, regardless of whether they were also enrolled in higher education, stood at approximately 84% for the 2022 graduation cohort.
Examining graduates that were neither in employment nor education, this was the case for 5.6% of graduates in 2022, which was an increase compared to 4.9% of the 2021 graduates, but a decrease relative to the 2013 cohort (10.1%).
Similarly, in the latest 2022 cohort, the share of graduates not detected in any administrative data source had increased (6.5%) relative to the 2021 cohort (5.9%). This nevertheless represented a smaller share than in the 2013 cohort (9.3%).
Outcomes for the 2013 cohort of graduates after one, three, five and ten years are shown below in Figure 2.2.
Whilst around 29% of 2013 graduates had re-enrolled in education in the first year after graduation, this had fallen to around 10% at five years after graduation and to 6% after ten years. Regardless of whether they were also re-enrolled in higher education, in the first year after their graduation 72% of graduates were in substantial employment. This was similar when looking at this cohort five years after graduation (72%) and was the case for around 74% of the graduate cohort after ten years.
Approximately 9% of 2013 graduates were ‘not captured’ in the first year after graduation. Five years after graduation, this proportion had increased to 21% and remained around 21% ten years after graduation. At the same time, the proportion of graduates in ‘Neither Employment nor Education’ fell from 10% in the first year after graduation to 4.6% after ten years.
This section focuses on employment outcomes five years after graduation as this is a useful timepoint at which individuals have likely settled into their career. Outcomes are shown for 2018 graduates as this is the latest year for whom five-year outcomes are available. How employment outcomes vary by field of study can be further explored for other graduation years and other post-graduation time frames using the PxStat tables accompanying this release.
Among 2018 graduates, the Education field had the highest proportion of graduates in employment five years after graduation, with 80% of graduates in substantial employment. This was followed by Agriculture, Forestry, Fisheries and Veterinary; Information and Communication Technologies; and Services, at 78%, 77%, and 74%, respectively. Around 70% of graduates from Natural Sciences, Mathematics and Statistics were substantially employed five years after graduation which was the lowest of any field.
The field showing the largest proportion re-enrolled in education was Natural Sciences, Mathematics and Statistics, with 18% of graduates enrolled in higher education after five years. In contrast, graduates from Business, Administration and Law were the least likely to still be in education with only 5% re-enrolled after five years.
Approximately 60% of NFQ Level 7 and 57% of NFQ Level 6 graduates had re-enrolled in education in the first year after graduation. This was higher than for graduates from NFQ Level 8 courses for whom this was 22%. This pattern may be partly explained by courses that offer students an add-on year that leads to an additional award, often at a higher NFQ level.
Independent of whether they were also in education, in the first year after graduation, 85% of NFQ Level 7 graduates were in substantial employment. This was the joint-highest rate of employment for a given NFQ level, along with NFQ Level 8 graduates at 85%. Graduates from programmes at NFQ Level 9 also showed a high level of employment, with around 84% in substantial employment.
Graduates from NFQ Level 10 programmes were the most likely to be not captured in any administrative source, at around 15%. As this outcome can be suggestive of emigration, this apparent high level of international mobility may be explained by NFQ Level 10 graduates pursuing post-doctoral positions abroad. However, this finding may also be related other factors, such as the relatively older demographic of this cohort.
Outcomes of 2018 graduates after five years are shown below in Figure 2.5 for each higher education institution. Other combinations of graduation year and years since graduation are available within the PxStat tables which accompany this release.
The institutions with the highest proportion of 2018 graduates in employment after five years were St Angela’s College of Home Economics, IT Tralee, and Mary Immaculate College, in which 80% or more of graduates were in substantial employment. In the same 2018 cohort, graduates from Royal College of Surgeons were most likely to be re-enrolled in higher education at 19%, followed by St Angela’s College of Home Economics (17%) and Trinity College Dublin (12%).
It should be emphasised that outcome analysis is not possible for cases where records did not contain a valid PPSN. The coverage rates by institution are presented in the Overview of Graduates chapter of this release. Internationally domiciled students are less likely to have a recorded valid PPSN so the relative share of these students in a given institution can influence the overall coverage rate. Additionally, smaller overall graduate numbers can result in more volatile percentage shares.
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