The Austrian Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research commissioned Statistics Austria to carry out the EUROGRADUATE survey 2022 in Austria. The national research team of Statistics Austria drew the projects’ sample (n=22,000) from the Database of Educational Pathways at Statistics Austria. Every person who graduates from an Austrian higher education institution (HEIs) is pseudonymously recorded in this database. For the graduates in the sample, contact data (name, most recent address, home/old address, institutional e-mail, private e-mail) were partly collected from central data sources (e.g. public universities) and partly decentralised from the universities of interest (e.g. private universities). The well-established relationship between Statistics Austria, the Ministry and HEIs guaranteed a smooth collection of required contact data while guaranteeing a high level of data protection. Following the collection of contact data, the postal addresses for graduates that are registered in Austria were validated with the Central Population Register - a possibility that Statistics Austria has while conducting surveys in the public interest.

All respondents were then contacted by postal letters. Around 18,000 graduates, for which e-mail addresses were available, were also contacted by e-mail in order to invite them to the Computer Assisted Web Interview (CAWI). The invitation letters contained project information, a detailed data protection sheet and the login details for entering the survey platform. A pre-incentive worth 2 EUR was enclosed with the postal invitations. If a person had a valid entry in the Central Population Register, the postal letter was sent to this address. Therefore, nearly all graduates who have their residence in Austria were contacted. If no legal residence in Austria was available according to the Central Population Register, one of the originally collected postal addresses by the HEI was used. Following the invitation letters, respondents who did not answer the online survey, received up to two reminder letters sent by post and via e-mail.

Overall, this contact strategy resulted in a very high response rate of fully completed questionnaires of around 55%.[1] The response rate of graduates who have an entry in the Central Population Register is 59%. If an invitation letter was sent within the EU (outside of Austria), the response rate is 42%. Outside the EU but within Europe, the response rate is 28%. The response rate is comparably low if the letter was sent to a country outside of Europe. In this group, only 12% had completed the questionnaire by mid-December. Due to a time lag in postal invitations, this figure might still increase until the end of the field phase.

After the end of the field phase, non-response weights based on the sample information and post-stratification weights based on register-based employment trajectories will be calculated for the final dataset.

In addition to providing the anonymised dataset for scientific purposes, the data will be available at the Austrian Micro Data Centre (AMDC) at Statistics Austria. In the AMDC, it is possible to link the survey data to other register data from Statistics Austria on an individual level by means of a pseudonymised personal identifier. This enables scientific institutions that have access to the AMDC to conduct comprehensive data analysis. For example, employment or educational trajectories could be studied beyond the scope of the survey.

Overall, the EUROGRADUATE survey carried out by Statistics Austria on behalf of the Austrian Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research shows the potential that lies in the combination of register and survey data, not only for analysis but also for sampling, provision of valid contact data and weighting.

Corresponding Author:

Franz Astleithner (Statistics Austria), Franz.Astleithner@statistik.gv.at

Other Authors:

Lena Seewann (Statistics Austria), Lena.Seewann@statistik.gv.at

Felicitas Mandl (Statistics Austria), Felicitas.Mandl@statistik.gv.at

[1] All data about response rates refer to mid-December. Final response rates might differ slightly.