Higher education in England: provision, skills and graduates

Universities and other higher education providers deliver and award hundreds of thousands of qualifications. Graduates develop a wide range of different knowledge and skills. Employers recruit graduates, matching the knowledge and skills they have with the requirements of the jobs they have on offer.

This publication seeks to identify from existing data what information we have on these outcomes in terms of qualifications, skills and employment. From analysing this data it seeks to understand what patterns we can identify, what connections can we make and what are the gaps in our knowledge.

Many of these issues will covered in the Universities UK Review of Skills and this analysis provides background to and a stimulus for the review.

News

UUK response to government’s interim response to the Augar review, post-qualifications admissions consultation and TEF

21 January 2021
UUK has responded to government’s interim response to the Augar review, post-qualifications admissions consultation and TEF

Majority of adult learners would upskill at university if given the chance

21 October 2020
New polling by Savanta ComRes for Universities UK has revealed that 82% of prospective students in England who are either unemployed, at risk of unemployment, or looking to learn new skills would be keen to study individual modules of a university degree.

Blog

Two people are sitting next to each other at a computer, one is teaching the other a new skill

Laying the foundations for a skills-led recovery

29 January 2021
​Following the publication of the UK government’s Skills for jobs white paper, Greg Wade, UUK’s policy lead on innovation, growth, employability and skills, studies its proposals and makes the case for a ‘whole skills approach’.
Students

Pathways and flexibility are key to supporting lifelong learning

18 December 2020
Dave Phoenix, Vice-Chancellor of London South Bank University, argues that if we are to facilitate lifelong learning and avoid ‘educational dead ends’, universities must play a core role in qualification design.