WDRD methodology

This guide to the methodology used in this publication aims to facilitate comparison of institutional data against the national data[1].

What do researchers do? - by subject reports on the doctoral graduate cohort and their first employment destinations using data provided by Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA). Employment data is collected for UK-domiciled doctoral graduates through the HESA ‘Destination of Leavers from Higher Education' (DLHE) survey. The DHLE survey[2] was introduced in 2004 and each year a questionnaire is sent in January to all UK[3] and other EU-domiciled[4] doctoral researchers who graduated from UK institutions in the previous year.  So, for example, the 2008 survey covered those graduating in 2007[5].

The responses to the DLHE survey enables us to comment on:

• current employment status, e.g. employment within the UK, unemployment, moved overseas
• first destinations at the level of broad discipline groups and larger subjects and subject groupings[6]
• first destinations broken down by gender and mode of study (part-time v full-time)
• first destinations in terms of sector of work, e.g. education, manufacturing
• first destinations in terms of occupations.

The DLHE survey information does not enable us to comment on:

• ‘international' doctoral graduates as national data is not collected for this cohort
• outcomes by different forms of doctorates (the survey does not distinguish, for example, professional doctorates from PhDs)
• which ‘first destinations' are with new employers and which maintain employment with an existing employer
• career motivation, salary information
• longitudinal career paths of doctoral graduates[7].

Source data

The raw data come directly from the Destinations of Leavers from Higher Education Survey (DLHE) data, obtained from the Higher Education Statistics Agency (www.hesa.ac.uk).

The subset for survey response results consists of all those who responded to the survey.  The subset is further refined by excluding those who were domiciled outside the UK. The data subset for employment sectors and types of work is further refined by excluding those who were working outside the UK.

Survey response categories

Entered work in the UK

Includes those listing their activity as full-time paid work, part-time paid work, voluntary or unpaid work or self-employed, in the UK.

Working and studying

Includes those listing their activity as full-time work and full-time study, full-time work and part-time study, part-time work and full-time study,and part-time work and part-time study.

Working or studying overseas

Includes those listing their activity as full-time paid work, part-time paid work, voluntary or unpaid work, self-employed, or further study overseas.

Entered study or training in the UK

Includes those listing their activity as entered study or training, in the UK, and describing it as higher degree by research, higher degree - taught, diploma or certificate or professional qualification, first degree course, private study, or other study or training.

Not available for work or study

Includes those describing their employment circumstances as permanently unable to work, temporarily unable to work, retired, looking after the home or family and taking time out in order to travel.

Believed unemployed

Includes those describing their employment circumstances as unemployed and looking for employment, further study or training, or due to start a job within the next month.

Other

Includes those describing their employment circumstances as not employed, but not looking for employment; further study or training, or something else.

 

General

The survey response tables present data referring to all responding doctoral graduates domiciled within the UK.

The discipline chapters are grouped by Joint Academic Coding System (JACS) subject codes as defined below.

Responses are categorised by the reported activity, and employment circumstances.

 

Subject grouping

Subjects are grouped in the discipline chapters by using the JACS codes[8] as follows:

• biological sciences: subjects C1-D9, excluding C8, and including J7
• biomedical sciences: subjects A1-B9, and C8
• physical sciences: subjects F0-K9, excluding J7
• social sciences: subjects L0-N9
• arts and humanities: subjects P0-W9
• other: refers to subjects in classes X (education) and Y (combined subjects).

Within each discipline, individual subjects and combinations of allied subjects have been selected for analysis where the UK-domiciled doctoral graduate population 2003-2007 totalled at least 250. Remaining subjects have been grouped as e.g. ‘other biological sciences'.

The subjects/subject groupings are as follows:

arts and humanities

history: subjects W1 to W3

English: subject Q3

modern languages: subjects R1 to R9

theology: subject V6

linguistics and classical languages: subjects Q1, Q2 and Q4 to Q6

other arts and humanities: all subjects in P, Q, R, T, V and W not elsewhere covered

biological sciences

biology : subject C1

biochemistry, molecular biology and biophysics: subject C7

microbiology: subject C5

agriculture: subject D4

other biological sciences: all subjects in C and D not elsewhere covered

biomedical sciences

medicine subjects: A1 and A3

psychology: subject C8

pharmacology, toxicology and pharmacy: subject B2

anatomy, physiology and pathology: subject B1

nursing: subject B7

others in biomedical sciences: all subjects in A and B not elsewhere covered

physical sciences

chemistry: subject F1

 physics: subject F3

mathematics: subject G1

computer science: subject G4

physical and terrestrial geographical and environmental sciences: subject F8

geology: subject F6

electronic and electrical engineering: subject H6

mechanical engineering: subject H3

civil engineering: subject H2

other physical sciences: all subjects in F and G not elsewhere covered

other engineering and building: all subjects in H, J and K not elsewhere covered

social sciences

business and management: N1 and N2

sociology: subject L3

politics: subject L2

economics: subject L1

geography: subject L7

law: subjects M0 to M9

other social sciences: all in L, M and N not elsewhere covered

other

academic studies in education: subject X3

 

Types of work

The ‘type of work' categories are built from the Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) codes[9] as follows:

Marketing, sales, media, and advertising occupations 341-344, 354

Commercial, industrial and public sector managers 111-116, 118, 121-123, 23170, 411

Scientific research, analysis and development occupations 211, 23210

Engineering professionals 212

Health professionals and associate professionals 22110-22113, 22122[10], 22130-22160, 321, 322

Teaching professionals 23111-23160, 23190-23194

Business and finance professionals 242, 353, 356

Information technology professionals 213, 313

Other professional, associate professional and technical occupations 22120-22121,22123, 23220, 23290-23292, 241, 243-245, 311, 312, 323, 351, 352, 355

Numerical clerks and cashiers, clerical, retail and bar staff 412-415, 421, 711, 922

Armed forces and public protection service occupation 117, 331, 942

Other occupations 511-629, 712-921, 923, 925

Unknown occupations No assigned SOC

 

Employment sector breakdown

The employment sectors were broken down according to Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) codes[11].

Employment Sector Standard Industrial Classifications

Education 80

Finance, Business and IT 64-67, 72, 74

Health and Social Work 85

Manufacturing 11, 15, 16, 20, 22-27, 29, 30-36, 40, 41, 73

Public Administration 75

Other Sectors 1, 2, 5, 45, 51, 52, 55, 60, 62, 63, 70, 71, 91, 92, 99, and unknown

 

Research staff in higher education

One of the primary destinations of doctoral graduates is employed as research staff in HE. However, such researchers are not explicitly identified in the dataset. They have been identified in WDRDS by cross-referencing available information on industrial (SIC) and occupational (SOC) classifications. The total number of first destination HE research staff were identified in the data by the total of all doctoral graduates working in SIC 8030 (Higher Education)[12] who were also classified in the following SOCs:

• 21110 Chemists
• 21111 Research/Development Chemists
• 21120 Biological Scientists and Biochemists
• 21121 Biochemists, Medical Scientists
• 21122 Biologists
• 21124 Botanists
• 21126 Agricultural Scientists
• 21127 Physiologists
• 21130 Physicists, Geologists and Meteorologists
• 21131 Physicists
• 21133 Geologists, Mineralogists etc.
• 21134 Meteorologists
• 21135 Astronomers
• 21136 Mathematicians
• 21210 Civil Engineers
• 21220 Mechanical Engineers
• 21221 Aeronautical Engineers
• 21230 Electrical Engineers
• 21240 Electronic Engineers
• 21242 Avionics, Radar and Communications Engineers
• 21250 Chemical Engineers
• 21260 Design and Development Engineers
• 21290 Engineering Professionals (Not elsewhere classified)
• 21291 Metallurgists and Material Scientists
• 213 Information and communication technology professionals
• 22120 Psychologists
• 22121 Education Psychologists
• 22122 Clinical Psychologists
• 22131 Pharmacists
• 22132 Pharmacologists
• 23210 Scientific Researchers
• 23220 Social Science Researchers
• 23290 Researchers (not elsewhere classified)
• 23292 Researchers (university - unspecified discipline)

Doctoral graduates employed in research roles across all sectors were derived from all those employed and giving their jobs as SOC codes 211 and 232.

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[1] This methodology was developed by Dr Charlie Ball of the Higher Education Careers Services Unit (HECSU), based on the methodology developed for the annual first degree destination publication, What Do Graduates Do?, produced by HECSU and the Association of Graduate Careers Advisory Services, (AGCAS).

[2] The DHLE superceded HESA's previous First Destinations Survey which was sent only to full-time UK-domiciled doctoral graduates and provided less information than DHLE

[3] UK-domiciled are those whose normal residence is in the UK, including the Channel Islands and Isle of Man.

[4] WDRDS does not cover other EU-domiciled doctoral graduates as numbers and responses rates are too low to provide representative data

[5] Submissions of doctoral theses and viva examinations occur throughout the year. Therefore, the resulting ‘snapshot' of first destinations may record the situation of doctoral graduates anything up to 12 months after the actual completion of their degrees.  However, by taking the survey at a fixed date, HESA ensures a consistent start point from which to view the data.

[6] The doctoral cohort is not large enough to support statistical analysis at subject level for individual years. Five years of data has been combined to allow statistically large enough samples to provide insights into first destinations in the larger subjects.

[7] The new DLHE longitudinal survey contacts graduates 3.5 years after the initial post graduation survey. The first full survey was undertaken early in 2009 and the analysis of this data will be the subject of a subsequent What do researchers do? publication.

[8] For the full JACS coding go to www.hesa.ac.uk/jacs/jacs.htm

[9] Data in WDRDS were built from a customised dataset: SOCs are at three digit level except where explicitly stated. For the full SOC listing go to www.hesa.ac.uk/manuals/03018/03018a04.htm

[10] In the What do PhDs Do? series (2004, 2006, 2007) UK GRAD Programme, 22122 clinical psychologists were classified under  ‘Other professional, associate professional and technical occupations'.

[11] For the full SIC codes go to www.hesa.ac.uk/manuals/04018/04018a02.htm

[12] This is a refinement of the methodology used in the What do PhDs Do? series (2004, 2006, 2007) UK GRAD Programme, where it was only possible to cross-reference by SIC 80, (all) Education.