Higher Education Outcomes – Health Graduates 2023

Destination Outcomes Definition

There are five classifications that describe graduate activities within each calendar year. 

• 'Substantial Employment only'. This refers to graduates who meet minimum criteria for employment or self-employment and are not enrolled in higher education within the same calendar year.
• 'Substantial Employment and Education'. This refers to graduates that meet the criteria for substantial employment or self-employment and are also enrolled in higher education at some point within the same year. 
• 'Education only'. This refers to graduates that are enrolled in higher education but are not in substantial employment.
• 'Neither Employment nor Education'. This refers to graduates who do not meet the criteria above but have some activity in administrative records for that year. These graduates may have some record of (non-substantial) employment or claimed some benefit in that year.
• The remaining individuals are categorised as 'Not Captured'. This means that they have no activity in the administrative data sources for that year. Most of this group are assumed to have emigrated, but there is no definitive indicator of emigration available in the administrative data.

An individual is regarded as being in 'substantial employment' within a given calendar year if they fulfil either of the two criteria below.

1. Substantial PAYE Employment - They fulfil the following two requirements:
   1. They have at least 12 weeks of insurable work within the calendar year across all employments. This can be supplemented by weeks of maternity and/or illness leave.
   2. The average weekly earnings from their main employer only must be at least €100 per week;
2. Substantial Self-Employment - Their total turnover across all self-employment activities must be at least €1,000 within the calendar year.

For further details, see the accompanying ELD methodology documentation.

Methodology Note

In line with CSO data protocols, all identifiable information from each of the data sources is removed, such as name, date of birth and addresses. The PPSN is replaced with a 'protected identifier key' (PIK) and it is this PIK which is used to link person-based data. The resulting data is then said to be 'pseudonymised' and this is what is used for all analysis.

For the purpose of statistical disclosure controls (SDC), values have been rounded to the nearest three and thus, the sum of individual components may not add up to the totals shown. In addition, statistics on pharmacy graduates before 2020 have been suppressed to ensure SDC.

Census of Population Analysis 2022 (COPA 2022)

The Census of Population Analysis (COPA) is a pseudonymised copy of Census data, held internally within the CSO for analysis purposes. It contains Census attribute information for individuals and households where 95% of records have a PIK which allows them to be linked to pseudonymised administrative data sources to create new analysis. 

HSE Health Regions

• HSE Dublin and North East health region covers North Dublin, Meath, Louth, Cavan, and Monaghan.
• HSE Dublin and Midlands health region covers Longford, Westmeath, Offaly, Laois, Kildare, West Wicklow and parts of Dublin South.
• HSE Dublin and South East health region covers Tipperary South, Waterford, Kilkenny, Carlow, Wexford, Wicklow, and parts of Dublin South.
• HSE South West health region covers Kerry and Cork. 
• HSE Mid West health region covers Limerick, Tipperary North, and Clare.
• HSE West and North West health region covers Donegal, Sligo, Leitrim, Roscommon, Mayo, and Galway.

Public/Private sector

The public/private sector of employment classification is taken from the CSO's Business Register which is harmonised to the Earnings, Hours and Employment Costs Survey (EHECS) and the Register of Public Sector Bodies. Voluntary hospitals are treated as the public sector in this release. Commercial and non-commercial Semi-State bodies are treated as the private sector.

PPSN Validity

A number of graduation records have a missing or invalid PPSN, and therefore cannot be matched to other administrative data sources. These graduates are excluded from the analysis involving outcomes. Graduates from RCSI were missing PPSN for graduation cohorts 2013, 2014 and 2016. Furthermore, all RCSI medicine graduates from 2012 were removed due to data quality issues.

Main Employment and Earnings

Employment data from Revenue includes one record for each occupation of every individual. Each record includes the number of weeks of insurable work and the gross pay received by the employee. It does not include the hourly wage or the number of hours worked. The Main Employer for each individual is the one which contributes the single largest pay to that individual over the course of the year. The Weekly Earnings for each individual are found using data from the main employer only, and is calculated as the gross pay divided by the number of weeks of insurable work. Revenue's PAYE Modernisation System (PMOD) was introduced on 01 January 2019 as the new way of gathering employment data, replacing the P35 annual return system.

For the purpose of statistical disclosure controls (SDC) median weekly earnings were calculated by taking an average (mean) of the middle five values in each cohort and earnings are also supressed for graduation cohorts where less than 15 graduates had earnings available.

Nationality

Graduates’ nationality is primarily taken from the HEA’s Student Records System. However, in instances where PPSN was valid and could be matched to the Central Records System from the Department of Social Protection, Irish nationality was also taken from this source. PPSN is valid at much higher rates for Irish graduates, as shown in Figure 2.3. Therefore, outcomes in this release are only calculated for Irish graduates with a valid PPSN.

For further details on the methodology used, please refer to the ELD methodology documentation.

Graduation Cohort Definition

This release uses the HEA’s Student Records System for data on annual graduations. This contains details on the courses studied and NFQ level. It also contains information about the learners themselves, such as gender, age and nationality. Health care graduates were identified using course name, course code and CAO code. Undergraduate programmes at NFQ Level 8 were identified that enables graduates to register with the Irish Medical Council, Nursing and Midwifery Board of Ireland or CORU. The full list of courses included in this release are below. The Central Applications Office (CAO) code for each course is shown where it was available in the data.