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<p>Action 6 of the International Education Strategy 2021 update focuses on the employability
of international students. Sector representatives are collaborating to build an understanding
of the UK’s skills needs, international labour markets, and barriers to international
graduate employability. They will also share examples of best practice across the
sector.</p><p>The department supports these efforts by expanding data resources available
in relation to international student graduate outcomes. My noble Friend will be aware
from recent answers to Questions <a href="https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-questions/detail/2022-01-31/hl5793"
target="_blank">HL5793</a> and <a href="https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-questions/detail/2022-01-31/hl5795"
target="_blank">HL5795 </a>that the department now publishes employment and study
outcomes one, three, five, and ten years after graduation for all international students
who remain in the UK after study and contribute to the UK economy.</p><p>Graduate
outcomes surveys are carried out by the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA).
This includes international graduates surveys. In response to my right hon. Friend,
the Minister for Higher and Further Education’s announcements on reducing bureaucracy
for the higher education sector in September 2020 and lowering the cost to providers
of participating in HESA data collections, there has been some scaling back of HESA’s
graduate outcomes survey methodology. This impacts 2020/21 academic year graduates.
The survey will be published in spring 2023.</p><p>Non-EU international graduates
will continue to participate in the survey. The process of contacting international
graduates by telephone, if they have not already participated online, is discontinued.
This has resulted in a lowering of the subscription cost of graduate outcomes to higher
education providers by approximately £350,000. HESA continues to explore and implement
strategies aimed at increasing online response rates.</p><p>The value of the HESA
graduate outcomes survey data is not solely determined by its response rates. The
current response rate target for the survey of international graduates is at 20%.
This is high for social surveys. Over the last three years, the survey has achieved
on average a 30% response rate for this group. This is 5 percentage points above the
previous target. Around half of these responses were collected over the telephone.</p><p>Conclusions
drawn on the international graduate outcomes will be driven by how representative
the students who respond to the survey are of the overall student population. The
Office for Students intends to undertake research looking at the outcomes for international
students. It will re-introduce telephone contact, should it significantly impact the
conclusions that can be drawn from the data.</p>
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