Information on the Statewide Graduate Survey
Graduate surveys are an important link between university education and professional life and provide valuable information on the following subjects:
- Decision to study and choice of program: Graduates can reflect on their degree program and student experience
- Start of career and qualification: Did the program qualify you for your career?
- Connection between degree program and professional activities: To what extend does your career build on the skills acquired in the degree program?
- Current status of recent graduates: What is your current status, i.e. are you in employment, have continued with further study etc.?
Since the winter semester 22/23, all higher education institutions in Hesse have taken part in the Graduate Survey Cooperation Project (KOAB) coordinated and evaluated by the Institute of Applied Statistics (ISTAT).
Graduates are surveyed annually about 1.5 years after graduation. At present, those who completed their studies between October 1, 2022 and September 30, 2023 are being surveyed.
The results play a key role in the development of degree programs because, for example, they help to improve study conditions and make sure that programs provide students with the skills and knowledge they need for their careers.
Contact
If you don‘t want to be contacted for the graduate survey again, please send an email to: evaluation(at)hs-gm.de
Data Protection Notice
Why am I contacted as a graduate?
Every higher education institution is obliged to review the effects of the programs offered, and to carry out evaluations for this matter. For example, Section 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 required knowledge, skills and methods.
Graduate surveys help to find out if this objective has been 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 answers entered in the questionnaire, which means that your answers are completely anonymous at any time.
FAQ
The Institute of Applied Statistics (ISTAT) has emerged from the International Centre 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 at http://www.istat.de/de/koab_a.html
Each graduate receives a randomly generated access code to take part in the study. By checking the access codes used, we can find out who has already responded (but we cannot see the answers entered in the questionnaire). Individuals who have already participated will not receive a reminder.
If you want to take a break during the survey, the access code enables you to save your answers and re-access the questionnaire in order to continue from where you left off. During the survey period, your answers are saved on the ISTAT server.
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 Cooperation Project, ISTAT also generates a global, cross-university data set as well as a research data set that compile the answers given by all graduates surveyed at participating universities. In these data sets it is not possible to identify individuals or single universities.
ISTAT evaluates the anonymized data within the scope of the statewide higher education and graduate research.
The questionnaire compiles many different types of questions, depending on the university, study area, study format, level, etc. In addition, there are questions that specifically address higher education policy in Hesse or are important for higher education research and education monitoring.
By putting these different types of questions into one central questionnaire, graduates only have to take part in one survey rather than being invited to respond to many individual questionnaires at different times.
The document provides a detailed overview of data protection regulations
or send an email to: evaluation(at)hs-gm.de
Map
