Where does the information on The Uni Guide come from?
We use a mix of official published data and our own original information across our website. This includes the following…
- - Destination of Leavers from Higher Education Survey (DLHE)
- - HEPI-HEA Student Academic Experience Survey
- - Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA)
- - Longitudinal Educational Outcomes (LEO)
- - National Student Survey (NSS)
- - Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF)
- - Ucas course details
- - Which? student survey
Frequently asked questions:
- - Why do you show data at a subject level, rather than course level? What’s the difference?
- - I want to query info or data you’re showing for an institution I represent.
- - Do you cover all university courses?
Destination of Leavers from Higher Education Survey (DLHE)
Last updated: September 2018
The DLHE is a survey of graduates six months after finishing their degree course to find out whether or not they are employed, and if so, what they are doing, whether they needed their degree for this, and how much they are earning. This is provided to us by the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA), and we draw on data for the following intakes: 2014/15, 2015/16 and 2016/17.
We publish employment and salary data where we have 20 respondents or more and feature the most relevant, recent and granular information available. Where we’re unable to meet this threshold using the most recent year’s data, we look to aggregate data back two or three years and then, if necessary, look at reporting data at a higher subject area.
Note, we use mean averages for this data so we can compare different universities.
You’ll find this information on our course profiles and university and college profiles.
We are working towards replacing this data set with the more recent Graduate Outcomes data set.
HEPI-HEA Student Academic Experience Survey
Last updated: January 2014
The Student Academic Experience Survey is an annual survey of full-time undergraduate students, asking them a range of questions around their academic experience and analysing them by broad subject area.
Our subject pages feature the average number of timetabled teaching hours on courses for the subject per week, reported by students, compared with the average teaching hours for all subjects, based on data from 2012 to 2014. For this analysis we only included first- and second-year students, because contact hours tend to drop off in the third year.
Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) student record
Last updated: April 2023
The Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) is the official source of information about students in higher education, including the profile of students and the qualifications they achieve.
Where enough data exists, it also features student details for individual subjects at different institutions. We publish data where we have 20 respondents or more and feature the most relevant, recent and granular information available.
You’ll find this on our university and college profiles, A-level Explorer results and course profiles.
We are currently awaiting the 2024 release of the data, which will combine the student record data and alternative provider student record data in to a single data set. This impact of this means we cab increase the number of providers which for which we can show information derived from this data set.
Longitudinal Educational Outcomes (LEO)
Last updated: October 2023
This LEO data combines HESA student record data with that from the Department of Work and Pensions and Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) to plot employment salaries for graduates from different subject fields one, three and five years after graduating.
This is at a broader level to other subject data-sets displayed on The Uni Guide, and covers the following: Medicine & Dentistry, Subjects allied to medicine (excluding nursing), Biological sciences, Veterinary science, Agriculture & related subjects, Physical sciences, Mathematical sciences, Computer science, Engineering & technology, Architecture building & planning, Social studies (excluding economics), Nursing, Law, Psychology, Business & administrative studies, Mass communications & documentation, Languages (excluding English studies), Historical & philosophical studies, Creative arts & design, Education, Economics, English studies.
National Student Survey (NSS)
Last updated: November 2022
The NSS is an annual survey of final-year students to find out how they rated different aspects of their course and university experience.
On The Uni Guide, we show the student satisfaction score: the percentage of users definitely or mostly satisifed with their course, and indicate whether this is high, medium or low compared with other institutions.
For each subject where data is available, we also show a detailed breakdown of student satisfaction within specific aspects of their academic experience, such as feedback received and facilities. We explain below why we show this broader subject level data on our course profiles (rather than more granular data relating to just that specific course).
You’ll find this information on our course profiles and university and college profiles.
In 2023 the NSS questions changed. We are currently working to adapt the site to include these new questions.
Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF)
Last updated: January 2021
The TEF is a measure of teaching quality at Higher Education providers as a whole. Universities and colleges are awarded a gold, silver or bronze rating (Note, not all universities and colleges have participated).
We removed the initial round of TEF ratings in 2022. New TEF ratings were released in 2023. We are currently working to add these back on the site. Once added, you’ll find this information on our course profiles and university and college profiles (at an institution level).
Learn more about the TEF in our guide.
Ucas course details
Last updated: August 2024
The Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (Ucas) is the organisation responsible for managing applications to Higher Education courses in the UK.
It holds details of full-time and some part-time undergraduate courses provided by over 350 universities and colleges. We feature details for over 32,000 full and part-time undergraduate degrees of two years or more duration, via Ucas' Data Collection tool and based on what information the institution has provided them about a course.
You’ll find this information on our course profiles.
University Student Reviews and Survey
Last updated: August 2024
Each year, we gather reviews and conduct a survey of current higher education students and recent graduates find out more about their university experience in the UK.
We ask for both a written review and a rating on a number of difference aspects of their student experience, including their course, the facilities and accommodation, student life, the student union, the welfare and support they recieved, their financial impact of studing and also on their overall experience.
In addition, we ask students to choose from a list of characteristics which describe their learning provider, covering areas like sporty, political, creative and varied union activities and generate a percentage score for each characteristic based on how many people picked it.
Frequently asked questions:
Why do you show data at a subject level rather than course level? What’s the difference?
Please note that the following datasets used on our pages are presented at a subject level for each university, such as ‘English Studies’ or ‘Mechanical Engineering’, rather than more granular course level:
- National Student Survey (NSS)
- Higher Education Statistics Agency student record
- Destination of Leavers from Higher Education Survey (DLHE)
This is where there isn’t enough data about a specific course to present, or it’s the most detailed information made available to us. We present the most relevant data that’s available from the most recent cohort of students.
This is why sometimes, even where there’s a brand-new course listed, you will still be able to view statistics for it (ie these relate not to that specific course, but to the subject area the courses sits under, for the previous year).
We use the HE Classification of Subjects (HECoS), grouping subjects together using the Common Aggregation Hierarchy (CAH) and mapping existing data collected under the previous Joint Academic Classification System (JACS) structure to this new system.
I want to query information or data you’re showing for an institution I represent
Hopefully this page sheds some light about where we get our data from, including the calculations behind what we present on The Uni Guide. You may also want to explore our About Us and Who We Work With pages, too.
If you represent a university or college, and you’ve spotted something that’s not quite correct concerning your institution profile or one of your courses on The Uni Guide, please check this is up to date in the information you’ve entered into Ucas (via their Collection Tool), and update this if necessary. This is often the reason why.
If this is correct or has been updated very recently, this should be reflected on our site in our upcoming data update.
If something is still incorrect, please then get in touch with us and we’ll be happy to investigate this for you.
Our team can also update some editorial elements of your institution profile:
- - main image at the top (1280 x 460px)
- - gallery images at the bottom (1280 x 460px)
- - intro text (roughly 350-380 characters)
- - links to your social media channels, official site and union site
Do you cover all university courses?
We only feature courses advertised via Ucas but not all universities or colleges use this system to manage applications.
