Surveys of Graduates and Former Students
Surveying former students is a valuable resource for understanding and assessing the links between studying and the world of work. Students either leave the university after attaining their degree or having exited their studies before graduating; in the context of discussing our survey approach, these groups will be referred to as ‘graduates’ and ‘former students’ respectively.
As of the 2022/23 winter semester, all universities in Hesse have participated in the statewide graduate survey cooperation project KOAB, which is coordinated and assessed by the Institut für angewandte Statistik (ISTAT; Institute of Applied Statistics). Through the surveys, graduates are asked about the following areas:
- Choice of studies: How do the graduates view their studies in retrospect?
- Entry into professional life and skills: Did their studies prepare them for employment?
- Relation between their area of study and their professional tasks: To what extent has their career path built upon the qualifications attained through their studies?
- Current status: What employment situation are graduates currently in?
A survey of former students has also started as of the 2024/25 winter semester, which is also coordinated by ISTAT. This survey assesses the following areas:
- Reasons for leaving the university
- Study conditions
- Transition from university to the world of work
The surveys for both groups run annually; those who have left the university with or without a degree within approximately the last year and a half are all contacted and asked to take part.
The survey results are especially valuable for the development of our degree programs, as they provide insights into graduates’ career prospects and highlight opportunities to improve the conditions for studying for our current and future students.
Why Have I Been Contacted?
Every higher education institution is obliged to review the impact of their degree programs and to carry out analyses to ensure they are meeting the required standards. For example, § 7 of the Higher Education Framework Act (Hochschulrahmengesetz) stipulates that a degree program should prepare students for a specific career or occupation and provide them with the knowledge, skills and methods required.
Graduate surveys help determine whether this objective is being achieved. The results are therefore used as part of the quality management process or in the course of reaccreditation of degree programs.
Your address data is never stored in a file together with your questionnaire answers, meaning any answers you provide remain completely anonymous.
FAQ
The Institute of Applied Statistics (ISTAT) has emerged from the International Center for Higher Education Research in Kassel (INCHER). INCHER is an interdisciplinary research center of the University of Kassel that has been conducting research on higher education for 30 years and enjoys an outstanding reputation in this field. Further information on the research project and ISTAT is available here.
Every survey participant receives a randomly-generated access code. This ensure that only the selected person can access and take part in the survey.
In addition, the access code allows a participant to save their progress and return to the survey at a later time. In the meantime, their answers are saved to ISTAT servers for the duration of the survey period.
After the end of the survey period, Hochschule Geisenheim University receives an anonymized file with the responses of all participants from our university.
As part of the graduate survey project, ISTAT also generates a global, cross-university dataset as well as a research dataset that compile the answers given by all graduates surveyed at participating universities. It is not possible to identify individuals or single universities in these datasets .
ISTAT evaluates the anonymized data within the scope of the statewide higher education and graduate research.
The questionnaire covers many different types of questions depending on the university, study area, study format, level, etc. In addition, there are questions that specifically address the higher education policy in Hesse as well as questions significant for higher education research and education monitoring.
By putting these all these questions into one questionnaire, graduates only have to take part in one survey rather than being invited to respond to multiple individual questionnaires at different times.
Alternatively, please send an e-mail to: evaluation(at)hs-gm.de
