Graduate Destination Survey 2012

South Africa, 2012

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Reference ID

zaf-chec-gds-2012-v1

Producer(s)

Cape Higher Education Consortium

Collections

Remote Access Data Enclave

Metadata

Documentation in PDF DDI/XML JSON

Created on

May 12, 2015

Last modified

Apr 29, 2026

Page views

79301

Downloads

2725

Identification

Survey ID number

zaf-chec-gds-2012-v1

Title

Graduate Destination Survey 2012

Country

Name	Country code
South Africa	zaf

Study type

Labor Force Survey [hh/lfs]

Series Information

Cape Higher Education Consortium. Graduate Destination Survey 2012 [dataset]. Version 1. Cape Town: CHEC [producer], 2013. Cape Town: DataFirst [distributor], 2015. DOI: https://doi.org/10.25828/mdtp-9k07

Abstract

The survey is a tracer survey of the 2010 cohort of graduates from the four public universities in the Western Cape. These are the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT), University of Cape Town (UCT), Stellenbosch University (US), and the University of the Western Cape (UWC). The Survey was initiated and overseen by a reference group of the Cape Higher Education Consortium (CHEC) (representing these universities) with input from the Western Cape Government (WCG), as part of CHEC's ongoing work on graduate attributes. The primary task of the survey was to determine levels of graduate employment and unemployment and to understand the differing pathways from higher education to work. CHEC consultants conducted the survey between September to November 2012.

Kind of Data

Sample survey data [ssd]

Unit of Analysis

The survey was designed as a longitudinal survey of all students who graduated in 2010 from one of the four universities in the Western Cape. The survey was ‘longitudinal’ in that it was designed to trace graduates
after two years of having obtained a qualification in 2010 and to possibly trace the same graduates further into the future.

Version

Version Description

v.1: Edited, anonymised dataset available in DataFirst's Secure Research Data Centre https://www.datafirst.uct.ac.za/services/secure-data-services

Version Date

2015-05-11

Scope

Notes

The survey collected data on graduate employment and unemployment as well as work placement and internships and the regional migration of skilled graduates in and out of the Western Cape.

Coverage

Geographic Coverage

The lowest level of geographic aggregation of the data is Province.

Geographic Unit

The data is at the level of individual institution

Universe

The survey covered all graduates of 2010 at the four public Universities in the Western Cape

Producers and sponsors

Primary investigators

Name
Cape Higher Education Consortium

Sampling

Sampling Procedure

The sample frame constituted a list of all graduates who received either a certificate, diploma or degree in 2010 at one of the four public universities in the Western Cape. The sample frame was compiled using Higher Education Management Information System (HEMIS) data from each of the four universities.

Response Rate

There were a total of 5 560 responses – a response rate of 22.5% of the total of 24 710 graduates. Roughly half these responses were online (2 873 or about 52%) while the other half were from telephonic interviews (2 687 or about 48%). The aggregate response rates for institutions are as follow: CPUT – 21.8%, UCT – 21.9%, SU – 21.6% and UWC – 26.7%.

Survey instrument

Questionnaires

The survey questionnaire made use of chronological rather than thematic sections to systematically guide the respondent from past to present to future. These included:

Section 1: At high school (which included questions about the graduate’s schooling background);
Section 2: At university (which included questions about the graduate’s studies leading up to the qualification obtained in 2010);
Section 3: Background, employment and relevance of qualification (which included questions about family background whilst studying, employment before and just after studying, employment as on 1 September
2012, and various questions in relation to different forms of employment or occupation, including relevance of qualification in relation to current employment);
Section 4: Current studies (which included questions about qualification type (if studying further), field, reasons for further study);
Section 5: Future plans (which included questions about possible future studies, current place of residence, emigration and reasons for emigration).

Data collection

Dates of Data Collection

Start	End
2012-09	2012-11

Data Collection Mode

Internet [int]

Data Collectors

Name
South Africa Commercial Direct

Data Collection Notes

South Africa Commercial Direct, a call centre, was appointed to administer the questionnaire under the guidance of the research team. The survey was administered online and by telephone. Graduates could only access the online survey by logging in with their student numbers, which were provided to them in personalised emails and cellphone messages sent out by the call centre. The telephonic segment was intended as backup pending the response rate obtained from the online survey. At the final count 2,873 responents were surveyed online and 2,687 respondents responded to telephonic interviews.

Access policy

Access authority

Name	Affiliation	URL	Email
DataFirst	University of Cape Town		support@data1st.org

Access conditions

Researchers can apply to access this data through our Remote Access Data Enclave https://www.datafirst.uct.ac.za/get-data/remote-access-data-enclave

Citation requirements

Contacts

Name	Email	URL
DataFirst Support	support@data1st.org

Metadata production

Producers

Name	Affiliation	Role
DataFirst	University of Cape Town	Metadata producer

Date of Metadata Production

2020-07-28

Metadata version

DDI Document version

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