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Warwick Institute for Employment Research

Study on the wider benefits of completing a degree

We are carrying out some research on behalf of the Department for Education (DfE) looking at the education choices, career and wider experiences of graduates from certain subject areas.

Recent research has suggested that graduates from some subjects may be less likely to achieve high financial rewards from their degrees. However, this is likely to be only part of the story. The DfE would like to better understand what drives graduates from different subject areas, how they make education and career choices, and what sorts of work and activities they engage in after university.

We are carrying out a series of telephone interviews and online focus groups and would like to talk to graduates who finished university in 2015, 2016 or 2017, and completed a degree in any of the following subjects:

  • Agriculture; Biosciences; Chemistry; Creative Arts and Design; Performing Arts, English; History; Languages; Philosophy; Psychology.

Please take a moment to read the following information so that you can decide whether you wish to take part in a telephone interview or an online focus group. If, after reading the information you are happy to proceed, please sign up using the form below.

Those taking part in a telephone interview or online focus group will receive a £15 online voucher as a thank you for taking part.

Key points:

  • The research, commissioned by the DfE, is being carried out by the Warwick Institute for Employment Research (IER), an independent research organisation. The research is being supported by a number of universities and educational institutions who are helping to promote the research via email and through social media channels. None of your contact details or other information have been passed on to the researchers or any other third party in relation to this research.
  • If you sign up for the research and are selected to take part, someone from the IER team will contact you to arrange a telephone interview or online focus group depending upon your preferences. Telephone interviews should take 30-45 minutes and online focus groups 60-90 minutes. Those taking part in an interview or focus group will receive a £15 online voucher.
  • Your answers will be treated as confidential and we will not report your name or anything that would make you personally identifiable in any research reports. All participants will be given a pseudonym for the purposes of reporting, and any identifying information will be removed to ensure confidentiality.
  • Taking part in the research is entirely voluntary. You do not have to take part if you don’t want to. If you decide to sign up to take part you are free to change your mind at a later stage. We cannot, however, withdraw your responses (if they are used in any research reports) after the findings from the research have been published. If you take part in an online focus group and inform us that you wish to withdraw from the research we will not use your response in the research, but we will not be able to delete your responses from the transcript of the session.

Further information about the research and what taking part involves, including the privacy notice for the research can be found here.

If you have any questions about the research or taking part please contact lead researcher Wil Hunt by email at W.Hunt@warwick.ac.uk or by phone on 024 7615 0860.

If you have read the further information and are happy to take part in the research, please complete the consent form below and provide the requested details about yourself.

Once you have completed the form and are happy with your answers hit the ‘Send form’ button at the bottom of the form.

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1. I confirm that I have read and understood the further information and privacy notice. I have had the opportunity to consider the information, ask questions and have had these answered satisfactorily. (required)
2. I understand that my participation is voluntary and that I am free to withdraw at any time without giving any reason. (required)
3. If I am invited to take part in an interview, I agree to allow the interview to be audio-recorded for the purposes.
4. If I am invited to take part in an interview, I agree to allow the interviewer to take notes on the interview
5. If I am invited to take part in an online focus group, I understand that all the answers provided in the focus group are automatically captured and stored but that participants will not be audio or video-recorded
6. I am aware that if I take part in a focus group I need to be considerate of others and not repeat what other focus groups members have said outside of this focus group. I am also aware that, while participation is anonymous, IER cannot prevent participants who were in the group from sharing information that should be confidential.
7. The procedures regarding confidentiality and GDPR compliance (e.g. the pseudonymisation of data, etc.) have been clearly explained to me in the privacy notice
8. I agree to pseudonymised text responses being used in research reports published on the www.gov.uk website, and elsewhere, and understand that best endeavours will be made to ensure that data in such reports is anonymised
9. I understand that my data will be archived, which means it will be securely stored for 10 years, in line with the University of Warwick’s Research Data Management Policy: https://warwick.ac.uk/services/ris/research_integrity/code_of_practice_and_policies/research_code_of_practice/datacollection_retention/research_data_mgt_policy/
10. I agree to take part in the above study (required)
11. Please indicate your participation preferences by ticking one or both of the following options: (required)
12. To help us to assign you to an interview or focus group, we would like to ask some details about you and your experiences:
To allow us to contact you about your participation in an online focus group or telephone interview, please can you tell us:
Privacy notice
The data on this form will be used by us in order to identify participants for a telephone interview or online focus group. Your information and contact details will only be used for this purpose.

The University of Warwick is the Data Controller of any information you have entered on this form and is committed to protecting the rights of individuals in line with Data Protection Legislation. The University's Data Protection webpages provide further information on your rights and how the University processes personal data. If you wish to submit a data subjects rights request, make a complaint or report a suspected personal data breach, please contact the University’s Data Protection Officer by email at infocompliance@warwick.ac.uk.

Project Team:

Wil Hunt (Principal Investigator)

Heike Behle

Gaby Atfield

Daria Luchinskaya

David Owen

Beate Baldauf

Clare Lyonette

Project Funder:

department_for_education_v3.png

Link to project info page.

Link to further info and privacy notice.

Downloadable flyer.