Every university or HE college in the UK contacts their graduates (and those leaving with a qualifying exit award) approximately six months after graduation (between November and March or April and June). This information helps universities and the government to have an accurate, and up to date picture of what graduates face after leaving university.

We collect this information on behalf of the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA). The latest available data shows that of the whole University, 90.3% of graduates were in employment and/or further study, with a further 1.2% due to start work within the next month. Of the full-time first degree graduates, 89.4% of graduates were in employment and/or further study, with a further 1.3% due to start work within the next month.

Eligible graduates will first be invited to complete an online questionnaire by email. If you have any problems completing the survey please email us at dlhe@brighton.ac.uk

If we don't receive a completed online questionnaire from you we will try to contact you again. This may be by email, phone or text message. If you have caller ID, our number will be displayed as 01273 641289. If you do not answer we will leave a message stating we are calling from the University of Brighton and explaining how to contact us.

You can call us about the survey on 01273 641289. Usually calls last no more than two minutes (but this can depend on your circumstances). We can call you back so you don’t have to worry about the cost of the call, and we have an answering machine where you can request a call back if we are unable to take your call.

If we can't get in touch with you, we may try to get information about what you are doing from a third party; either at the university or someone we can reach using the contact information you have previously provided. However, we do prefer to receive the information from you, so that we know the information is accurate. Whether you complete the survey online or over the phone it will only take a few minutes and your information is really important to us.

We do need to get a certain number of responses for our data to be valid. This is to ensure our data is as accurate as possible and does not simply include the most favourable responses. This means we may contact you a number of times if you do not initially reply. Please note that the survey may also be audited – that is, checked to make sure it has been carried out correctly.

If you don't wish to take part in the survey, please let us know. You can either reply to the email you have been sent, let the person who has called you know you don't wish to take part, email dlhe@brighton.ac.uk or phone 01273 641289.

Remember that you will need to give us your name and either your student number or your course name in order for us to identify you and remove you from our contact list.

Data from this survey will be collected onto our student records system for internal statistical analysis and management purposes. This data may be linked to other information about you held by the university, and information we collect may be added to your Alumni record. We may use your responses to send you information about services and support available to you (where relevant to your circumstances). You can let us know if you do not wish to receive this information.

The data will also be used in an anonymised form to inform current and prospective students (and graduates) of the opportunities available on completion of their courses, both on our website in our graduate destinations reports and Key Information Sets on our course pages, as well as on the Unistats website (see our page What do other graduates do? for details). It will not be possible to identify you from any published data.

We will also send your answers to the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA). This data will be linked to other information held about you as a student, including information you gave when you enrolled, and details about the qualification you gained. Information about the uses of this data are available in the Student Collection Notice. Your HESA record and survey responses will not be used in any way that could be used to make decisions about you.

Please be assured that your data is NOT used by external organisations for marketing purposes. Any external organisations receiving this data must sign contracts that require that individuals shall not be identified from the supplied data. Therefore they are not able to contact you for marketing purposes.

Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, you have the right to a copy of the information held by HESA and ourselves. Details of how to request a copy of this information (which may incur a fee) can be found at the following links: From the University of Brighton From HESA

A follow-up survey is planned for three years' time so that we can get more information about the early careers of those with HE qualifications. You might be asked to take part in this follow-up survey as well, which will be carried out by a different organisation on behalf of the Higher Education Statistics Agency.

Your contact details will be passed on to the organisation contracted to carry out the survey. That organisation will use your details only for that purpose and will then delete them. If you don’t want to take part in the follow-up, you will have the chance to opt out when you complete the current survey. Alternatively you can contact us at any time to tell us you don't wish to take part. If a third party has completed the survey on your behalf you will automatically be opted out of the follow-up survey,

For more information about how the Careers Service can support you, please see our page Services for Alumni, contact us on 01273 642855 or email careers@brighton.ac.uk.