Graduate Outcomes

Graduate Outcomes is the UK’s largest annual survey of people who have recently completed a higher education course. It asks what you are doing now, how you feel about your current activity and how your studies contributed to where you are today.

It allows graduates to reflect on their journey and helps create a national picture of graduate careers and experiences.

Your response helps:

• future students understand where different courses can lead
• the University improve its courses and careers support
• employers and researchers better understand the graduate job market
• inform national research and higher education policy

Graduate Outcomes information is also used by services including Discover Uni, Prospects and university league tables. Your response helps make that information more representative of the full Chester graduate community. Learn how Graduate Outcomes survey results are used.

Yes, absolutely.

If you have moved into employment, secured a graduate or professional role, gained a promotion, started postgraduate study or progressed within an existing career, please tell us.

The University will not necessarily know what you are doing now, even if your role relates directly to your course or you have continued studying at Chester. Your response helps us understand where our graduates go and what they achieve.

Your response is equally important.

Graduate Outcomes is not a test of whether you have found a particular type of job. There is no single “right” outcome after university. We want to understand the full range of graduate experiences, including people who are:

• looking for work
• changing direction
• taking time out
• travelling
• caring for someone
• managing health or personal circumstances
• developing a business idea
• combining several different activities

Your experience at 15 months is simply a snapshot of where you are at that point.

Please take part. Graduate careers do not all follow a traditional employment route. The survey is designed to capture self-employment, portfolio careers, creative work, business ownership and other less conventional pathways.

We would still like to hear from you, even if you are completing another course at the University of Chester. Further study is an important graduate outcome, and your response helps show the different ways graduates continue developing their knowledge and careers.

You will normally be invited to take part around 15 months after completing your course. Graduates are surveyed in different groups during the year, based on when their course ended.

You will usually have around 12 weeks to respond and may receive reminders during this period. View the Graduate Outcomes survey timeline and FAQs.

You may be contacted by email, text or telephone. The quickest and easiest way to respond is online, using the secure link in your invitation.

The survey link will be sent from survey@graduateoutcomes.ac.uk 

If contacted by telephone, the caller will explain that they are from IFF Research and are calling on behalf of the University of Chester.

If you are unsure whether a message or call is genuine, contact graduateoutcomes@chester.ac.uk before responding.

The online survey takes around 10 minutes and can be completed on a phone, tablet or computer. Graduate Outcomes describes it as a ten-minute opportunity to help shape the experience of future students.

Questions cover:

• what you are currently doing
• your employment, study or other activities
• how meaningful you find your current activity
• whether it fits with your future plans
• how you are using what you learned during your course
• your reflections on your experience since leaving higher education

Some questions are optional, and you can choose not to answer them.

Your information is handled in accordance with data-protection legislation. Results are used for research, statistics and to improve higher education. Published findings are presented in ways designed to prevent individuals from being identified.

You can read the full explanation of how your information is collected, processed and shared in the Graduate Outcomes privacy information.

Keeping your details current means you will receive your invitation and will not miss the chance to take part.

• Current students: update your details through eVision.
• Graduates: email graduateoutcomes@chester.ac.uk with your updated personal email address and telephone number.

We recommend using a personal email address rather than a University or employer account, as you are more likely to retain access to it.

Check your spam or junk folder and search your inbox for “Graduate Outcomes.”

If you think you should have received an invitation but cannot find it, email graduateoutcomes@chester.ac.uk. We can check when you are due to be surveyed and help ensure your contact details are correct.

No. Your individual survey link will be sent when your survey period opens, around 15 months after you finish your course.

Until then, keep your contact details updated and look out for messages from Graduate Outcomes and the University.

Your connection with Chester does not end when you complete your course. Keeping in touch means we can share relevant careers support, graduate opportunities and your Graduate Outcomes invitation.

Final-year students and recent graduates can also join our LinkedIn community for:

• graduate jobs and paid opportunities
• careers events and practical advice
• application and interview support
• updates from Careers and Employability
• connections with other Chester students and graduates

Join the Final-Year and Recent Graduates LinkedIn Group