Higher Education Outcomes - Health Graduates 2020 Destination Outcomes
Out of all Irish nursing and midwifery graduates who graduated in 2011, 34% were ‘not captured’ in the administrative records for at least one year in the 10 years since they graduated. Of these, 59% later returned within the same period.
Out of all Irish medicine graduates in 2011, 35% were ‘not captured’ for at least one year in the 10 years since they graduated. Of these, 43% later returned.
Ten years after graduation, 14% of all medicine graduates, who graduated in 2011, were ‘not captured’ for more than 8 years. This compares with 10% of nursing and midwifery graduates.
Ten years after graduation, 64% of medicine graduates in 2011 were never ‘not captured’ and a further 8% remained ‘not captured’ for just one year.
Ten years after graduation, 66% of nursing and midwifery graduates in 2011 were never ‘not captured’ and a further 14% remained ‘not captured’ for just one year.
Definition of ‘Not Captured’
Graduates categorised as 'Not Captured' have no activity in the administrative data sources for that calendar year. These data sources include employment and self-employment records from Revenue, higher education enrolments from the Higher Education Authority (HEA), and records of payments from the Department of Social Protection. Most of this group are assumed to have emigrated, but there is no definitive indicator of emigration available in the administrative data. Refer to the Background Notes for more information.
- Almost all Irish medicine graduates, who graduated in 2011, were in 'substantial employment' in Ireland in their first year after graduation. This fell to 80% two years after graduation and 65% after 10 years.
- Approximately 16% of medicine graduates were ‘not captured’ two years after graduation increasing to 25% after ten years.
- Nearly 80% of Irish nursing and midwifery graduates, who graduated in 2011, were in 'substantial employment' in Ireland one year after graduation and after ten years.
- Around 8% of nursing and midwifery graduates were ‘not captured’ in their first year after graduation, increasing to 20% after five years and falling to 15% after ten years.
- A substantial share of healthcare graduates that are ‘not captured’ for at least one year subsequently return.
- Out of all medicine graduates who graduated 2011, 35% were ‘not captured’ for at least one year in the 10 years since they graduated. Of these, 43% later returned within the same 10-year period.
- Later cohorts of medicine graduates are more likely to return. Out of all medicine graduates in 2016, 36% were ‘not captured’ for at least one year in the five years since they graduated. Subsequently, 60% of these returned within the same period.
- Out of all nursing and midwifery graduates who graduated 2011, 34% were ‘not captured’ for at least one year in the 10 years since they graduated. Of these, 59% later returned within the same period.
Table 1.1: Number of Irish graduates 'not captured' for at least one year and the number that returned
- Graduates in 2011 have a ten-year period to be recorded as ‘not captured’. Half of medicine graduates in 2011 are ‘not captured’ for the first time after two and three years. Around 8% are first ‘not captured’ in each of the years 7, 8 and 9 years after graduation.
- Graduates in 2016 have a five-year period to be recorded as ‘not captured’ and 71% of Medicine graduates are first ‘not captured’ after two years.
- More nursing and midwifery graduates are first recorded as being ‘not captured’ within the first two years after graduation.
- Nearly 75% of nursing and midwifery graduates in 2011 are ‘not captured’ for the first time within three years of graduation. This is a similar proportion to graduates in 2016 despite this latter cohort only having a five year period to be recorded as ‘not captured’.
- Ten years after graduation, only 9% of all Irish medicine graduates, who graduated in 2011, have been ‘not captured’ for nine or ten years.
- This compares to 64% of graduates who have never been ‘not captured’. A further 8% of medicine graduates have been ‘not captured’ for just one year, in the ten-year period.
- It is a similar trend for nursing and midwifery graduates. After ten years, only 7% of all graduates in 2011 have been ‘not captured’ for nine or ten years.
- This compares to 66% of graduates who have never been ‘not captured’. A further 14% of nursing and midwifery graduates have been ‘not captured’ for less than three years over the ten-year period.
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Statistician's Comment
The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today (07 November 2023) published Higher Education Outcomes – Health Graduates 2020 Destination Outcomes. This new publication analyses the destinations of health graduates in terms of employment and re-enrolment in education in Ireland and analyses graduates’ migration patterns over the last decade using administrative data.
Commenting on the report, Brian Stanley, Statistician, said: “This report measures health graduates’ international mobility over the last decade. Out of all nursing and midwifery graduates who graduated in 2011, 34% were ‘not captured’ in the administrative records for at least one year in the 10 years since they graduated. Of these, 59% later returned within the same period. Out of all medicine graduates in 2011, 35% were ‘not captured’ for at least one year in the 10 years since they graduated. Of these, 43% later returned. It is assumed that graduates who were ‘not captured’ have emigrated but there is no definitive indicator of emigration available."
Commenting on the report, Kieran Culhane, Senior Statistician, said: “This publication was produced using a statistical framework known as the 'Educational Longitudinal Database' (ELD) developed by the CSO. This framework is produced by matching datasets from the Education sector to other public sector datasets which describe graduate outcomes in subsequent years. Future releases from the ELD will analyse the industry sectors that health graduates work in and their earnings over time.
In this regard, the CSO treats all data with strict confidentiality and never discloses any data that could subsequently be associated with any person or business. We have compiled these new statistics using anonymised records and will only produce statistical results at an aggregate level.”