Glossary

A

• Australian Graduate Survey (AGS)

  was the national census of newly qualified higher education graduates. Conducted annually between 1972 and 2015, the AGS surveyed new graduates from all Australian universities, and a number of higher education institutes and colleges, approximately four months after they complete the requirements for their awards. The AGS was superseded by the GOS in 2016.

• Australian Standard Classification of Education (ASCED)

  comprised of two component classifications, Level of Education and Field of Education. It provides a basis for comparable administrative and statistical data on educational activities and attainment classified by level and field. See Fields of education (HEIMSHELP).

B

• Broad Field of Education (BFOE)

  broad field of education categories are used by the Department of Education, Skills and Employment for reporting higher education statistics. They are coded from the field of education code associated with the course undertaken by a graduate. Please refer to the Field of Education classifications on the HEIMS website.

   

C

• Commencing students

  are part of the in-scope population for the SES. For the purpose of the SES, commencing students are defined as students who are, studying onshore in an undergraduate or a postgraduate by coursework course at an Australian higher education institution, have commenced the course in the reference year of the survey, and at the time of survey and have already completed at least one full teaching period of the course (e.g. one semester or one trimester).

• ComparED

  The ComparED website is designed to allow potential students to confirm their choices about the higher education institutions and study areas they are considering for their further education.  

  The website allows users to compare information from actual students and graduates about their current student educational experience and graduate outcomes. Users can compare up to six institutions and six study areas at one time.

• Confidence intervals

  reflect the accuracy of the estimates and the degree of confidence we can have in those estimates. A 90% confidence interval means that 90 times out of 100, the true value will fall within the upper and lower confidence intervals.

• Course Experience Questionnaire (CEQ)

  a questionnaire completed as part of the GOS, by graduates of Australian higher education institutions approximately four months after completion of their course. This survey provides information about the quality of education provided within Australian institutions. The survey asks graduates to what extent they agree with a series of statements about their study experiences.

• CourseSeeker

  CourseSeeker helps potential students make informed decisions about future study. It provides clear, meaningful and transparent information about ATARs, pre-requisites and enrolment practices and policies of higher education providers across Australia.

• Coursework

  written, oral or practical work completed by a student during a course of study, usually assessed in order to count towards a final mark or grade.

D

• Disability

  this indicates whether the student or graduate has a disability, impairment or long term medical condition. This is defined by data element E615 on the HEIMS website. For further information please refer to the HEIMS glossary or data element dictionary. 

E

• Employer Satisfaction Survey (ESS)

  a survey that measures the quality of education provided within individual Australian institutions. This survey asks supervisors to provide feedback about the generic skills, technical skills and work readiness of the graduate employed in their workplace.

F

• Full-time employment

  this includes domestic graduates who were usually or actually in paid-employment for at least 35 hours per week as a proportion of those who were available for full-time work in the week before the survey. This figure includes graduates who were working full-time and does not exclude those undertaking further full-time or part-time study.

• Full-time employment median salary

  this is the gross median salary from all jobs for domestic graduates working full-time in Australia, excluding outliers, i.e. very high and very low salaries.

G

• Graduate Destinations Survey (GDS)

  was administered as part of the now retired AGS. The GDS collected information about graduate employment outcomes and previous employment, continuing study and work-seeking status, work-seeking behaviour, past education and key respondent characteristics (e.g. recent qualifications, residency status, etc.). 

• Graduate Employment

  includes indicators around full-time employment rate (>35 hours from all jobs of those who are available for full-time employment), overall employment (>1 hour from all jobs of those who are available for any work). This includes students who are undertaking full-time or part-time further study.

• Graduate Outcomes Survey - Longitudinal (GOS-L)

  supplements the Graduate Outcomes Survey by measuring the medium-term employment outcomes of higher education graduates, approximately three years after they have completed their course. The GOS-L is based on a cohort analysis of graduates who responded to the Graduate Outcomes Survey.

• Graduate Outcomes Survey (GOS)

  a survey that is completed by graduates from Australian higher education institutions approximately four months after completion of their course. This survey provides information on the labour market outcomes and further study activities of graduates that year.

• Graduate Satisfaction

  an indicator on the ComparED website. Graduate satisfaction is sourced from the CEQ which is a component of the GOS. It measures a student’s satisfaction with the quality of education provided by their institution.

H

• Higher Education Information Management System (HEIMS)

  HEIMS is an information system that contains a range of student and staff data submitted by higher education and VSL providers. From 2020, HEIMS is being gradually replaced with TCSI and HEIMS will be decommissioned once TCSI is fully operational and providers have transitioned.

• Home language

  this indicates whether the student or graduate uses a language other than English at the person's permanent home residence. This is defined by data element E348 on the HEIMS website. For further information please refer to the HEIMS glossary or data element dictionary.

   

I

• Indicators

  are measures based on focus areas or items within the QILT surveys such as the entire educational experience, teaching quality, student support, learner engagement, learning resources, skills development, full-time employment rate, overall employment rate, labour force participation, further study outcomes and median full-time salaries. 

• Indigenous status

  this indicates whether the student or graduate identifies themselves as being of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander descent. This is defined by data element E316 (the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander code) on the HEIMS website. For further information please refer to the HEIMS glossary or data element dictionary.

• Institution

  an organisation that provides a higher, post-secondary and/or tertiary education.

J

K

L

• Labour force participation rate

  this includes domestic graduates who were available for employment in the week before the survey as a proportion of all domestic graduates responded to the survey. This figure includes graduates who were available for employment and does not exclude those undertaking further full-time or part-time study.

• Later year students

  are part of the in-scope population for the SES. For the purpose of the SES later years students in a university setting are defined as students who are studying onshore in an undergraduate or a postgraduate by coursework course at an Australian university, and generally in their final year of study. Later years students in a NUHEI setting also include middle years students.

• Location

  is a measure based on the Australian Statistical Geography Standard (ASGS) classification of remoteness. The QILT survey data classify higher education students or graduates as being either from regional/remote or metropolitan areas. The combined regional/remote category includes students or graduates from Inner regional, Outer regional, Remote and Very remote areas as defined by the ASGS. Geocoding is calculated at the postcode level. However, postcodes can be mapped to multiple remoteness categories. If a postcode is classified as 75 per cent regional/remote and 25 per cent metropolitan, these proportions are used to estimate the number of students or graduates from metropolitan or regional/remote areas that meet the survey characteristics in question.

M

• Medium-term graduate

  medium-term graduate outcome data are sourced from the GOS-L. GOS-L measures the outcomes of higher education graduates based on a cohort analysis of graduates approximately three years after they completed their course. The GOS-L is an ongoing part of the QILT survey suite, commissioned by the Australian Government Department of Education, Skills and Employment.

N

• National average

  calculated using data from all survey responses, these responses were pooled at a national level, in the same way overall institution results are calculated using data pooled at the institution level.

O

• Occupation group

  occupation groups as coded from the Australian and New Zealand Standard Classification of Occupations (ANZSCO).

• Overall employment rate

  this includes domestic employed graduates (full-time and part-time) as a proportion of those who were available for employment in the week before the survey. This figure includes graduates who were available for employment and does not exclude those undertaking further full-time or part-time study.

P

• Postgraduate Coursework

  a student enrolled in or graduated from a graduate certificate, graduate diploma, masters degree or doctorate by coursework. 

• Postgraduate Research

  a student enrolled in or graduated from a graduate certificate, graduate diploma, masters degree or doctorate by research.

• Postgraduate Research Experience Questionnaire (PREQ)

  a questionnaire completed as part of the GOS by postgraduate research level graduates of Australian higher education institutions, including both domestic and international onshore graduates. This survey provides information about the quality of research training in Australia, by asking graduates to what extent they agree with a series of statements about their experiences completing a research degree.

Q

• Quality Indicators for Learning and Teaching (QILT)

  an Australian Government program that brings student and graduate survey data together from Australian higher education institutions. These data are used for a range of purposes including informing student choice through the ComparED website, performance based funding, TEQSA risk assessment and continuous improvement processes in institutions to improve the quality of higher education in Australia. 

R

S

• Short-term graduate

  short-term graduate outcomes data are sourced from the GOS. The GOS measures the outcomes of higher education graduates approximately four months after they completed their course. It is a census of all in scope graduates and is administered under the QILT initiative, commissioned by the Australian Government Department of Education, Skills and Employment.

• Social Research Centre

  The Social Research Centre is the current contract holder for QILT and acts as an agent of the Department of Education, Skills and Employment under the Higher Education Support Act for the purposes of this program. The Social Research Centre has held the contract to deliver QILT since 2015. 

• Socio-economic status

  The socio-economic status of higher education students and graduates is categorised as high, medium or low, as defined by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS)  Socio-Economic Indexes of Areas (SEIFA) Index of Education and Occupation. This index reflects the educational and occupational level of communities. Geocoding is calculated at the ABS Statistical Area 1 level, or postcode level when this detail is not available. Within the population as a whole, the top 25% of the population aged 15–64 are classified as high socio-economic status based on where they live; the middle 50% of the population are classified as medium socio-economic status; and the bottom 25% of the population as low socio-economic status.

• Student Experience Questionnaire (SEQ)

  is the core component of the SES. The SEQ collects students’ opinions on five aspects of their experience in higher education in Australia: Skills Development, Learner Engagement, Teaching Quality, Student Support, and Learning Resources, plus an additional question on the Quality of entire educational experience.

• Student Experience Survey (SES)

  the only comprehensive survey of current higher education students in Australia. It focuses on aspects of the student experience that are measurable, linked with learning and development outcomes, and potentially able to be influenced by higher education institutions.

• Study areas

  compiled based on the Australian Standard Classification of Education (ASCED), which groups higher education courses, specialisations and units of study with the same or similar vocational emphasis. The QILT website lists 21 different study areas to compare.

• Study Assist

  a website that provides information about Australian Government assistance for tertiary study including information about subsidised fees and government loans. 

T

• Tertiary Collection of Student Information (TCSI)

  is a joint project to transform how student information is collected. The Department of Education, Skills and Employment and Services Australia, are working together with education providers and software developers to build a compatible solution that will provide a seamless experience for providers and students. The TCSI solution will replace the Higher Education Provider Client Assistance Tool (HEPCAT) for all education providers and the Centrelink Academic Reassessment Transformation (CART) for universities.

U

• Undergraduate

  a student who is enrolled in or graduated from a higher education accredited diploma / advanced diploma, associate degree, a bachelor degree or a bachelor degree honours. 

V

W

X

Y

Z