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Directorate

Australian Graduate Survey

The Australian Graduate Survey (AGS) has occurred annually since 1972, conducted by all Australian higher education institutions and coordinated by Graduate Careers Australia (GCA). It is the premier survey to gather graduate feedback about their higher education experiences and graduate employment outcomes.

University and national reports of survey findings

  • Strongly influence course choices made by prospective students
  • Are taken into consideration by the Commonwealth Government when determining special funding allocations to individual universities
  • Are utilised by the media and publishers in commentary on the quality of universities
  • Are used at UWA during reviews of courses, Schools and other academic units

The significance of the AGS is underlined by the AVCC-GCA Code of Practice which states that “a total institutional response rate of at least 70% is desirable and achievable for the GDS and the CEQ”. Where an institutional response rate falls below 50% the survey data cannot be published as it is highly likely that it will be unrepresentative of the real picture of graduate course experience and destinations.

It is strongly in UWA’s interest that the benchmark survey response rate is achieved and following is a summary of the ways in which the Careers Centre, Faculties and Schools can work together during the annual survey cycle to achieve this.

Survey

Phase

Timing

Purpose

Careers Centre

Strategies & Actions

Faculty / School

Support

Planning Before commencement of survey cycleEstablish a plan for the timing and conduct of the survey
  • Establish the survey timeline
  • Develop a promotional strategy
  • Disseminate the survey plan to the UWA community
  • Liaise with the Careers Centre regarding any planned Faculty/School based surveying of graduates
Message Exposure Pre-graduation

To raise awareness of the survey

  • Update survey information on the web and forward link to Faculties and Schools
  • Circulate information about the Survey to Faculty Teaching & Learning Committees 

  • Update link from Faculty/School web site to survey information on Careers Centre web site
  • Circulate information about the survey to academic staff
  • Include information about the survey in any newsletters or other communications with students and staff
  • E-mail final year students with information about the survey
Message Retention Post graduation and before survey

To sustain and reinforce students' awareness of the survey - raise anticipation and expectation

  • Send a pre-notification e-mail to the survey population
  • Include information about the survey with any post graduation communications to students
Motivate Completion Mail-out / on-line distribution of surveyMotivate students to complete the survey
  • Provide clear and simple instructions for survey completion
  • Customise the survey questionnaire to simplify ease of completion
  • Prior to postal despatch of questionnaires send an e-mail invitation to complete the survey on-line
  • Include a cover letter with all questionnaires despatched by post
  • Send an e-mail or postal message to students endorsing the survey and encouraging their response

 

Motivate Return Post survey completionMotivate students to return the survey questionnaire or submit their response on-line
  • Send 3 e-mail reminders to survey non-respondents
  • Send 2 postal reminders to survey non-respondents
  • Provide Faculty Teaching & Learning Committees with regular updates on survey response rate

Evaluation Post surveyEvaluate the effectiveness of strategies to enhance the survey response rate
  • Provide feedback to Faculty Teaching & Learning Committees on final response rate
  • Review the relative effectiveness of different strategies used to improve the survey response rate
  • Prepare a survey evaluation report and circulate to Faculty Teaching & Learning Committees
  • Review final response rate for Faculty/School
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