Information for schools
For over 45 years the DZHW (fmr. HIS-Institut für Hochschulforschung der HIS GmbH) has been collecting data on educational and professional histories of various cohorts of graduates eligible for higher education, who attain the "Abitur", the "fachgebundene Hochschulreife" or "Fachhochschulreife" at a general education or a vocational school.
The study is created as a scientific longitudinal study, which means that it includes multiple surveys that follow eligible students over a long time frame. At the beginning of a new study series, schools or school parts will be chosen and contacted nationwide to partake in the randomized sample.
In order to conduct the initial contact as well as the distribution of questionnaires, we kindly ask for your support as a school. Schools will receive all required materials from the DZHW and have a central role in contacting pupils and enabling their participation in the survey. Schools will incur no costs, and we will take all precautions to lower their workload as much as possible.
Students are surveyed on their vocational training and study intentions half a year before their graduation. The second survey will take place half a year after graduation and contains questions on their subsequent careers and the experiences of pursuing these careers. Further surveys are conducted on a biannual basis. Their focus is on the life courses of school graduates, especially concerning their actually attained educational and career paths.
Pupils will be briefed on the scientific purpose of the study comprehensively and all data will be processed anonymously, which excludes conclusions about individual persons. The DZHW is obligated and committed to comply with current data protection guidelines. You can find further information on this here.
As a token of appreciation, we will provide schools with anonymized school-specific results, as long as the number of cases is sufficient from a data protection perspective. These results give insight into thematic areas such as students’ informational behavior, career and life goals for their time after graduation and will be exclusively available to your school.
Your participation also contributes to answering relevant questions of education policy on the federal as well as the state level and generates valuable empirical data for scientific research on education. These results serve as a foundation for public discourse and support decision making in education policy. They will also provide an orientation aid for future graduates and their post-school educational choices.
FAQ – Frequently Asked Questions
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How is the study funded?
- The Student Life Cycle Panel is funded by the Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR) and the Ministries of Education of the 16 federal states.
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When can I expect a school-specific evaluation?
- The first survey of each graduating class is carried out in writing by post to around 1,000 school branches nationwide. This requires a great deal of logistical effort, not only in sending out the questionnaires, but also in preparing the data (coding open responses, data plausibility checks and data entry). The data set is completed approximately one year after the survey. After that, the school-specific evaluations can begin, which are completed around 15 to 18 months after the survey.
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How is data protection ensured?
- The DZHW is obliged to strictly comply with the data protection regulations applicable to the collection and processing of personal data. The evaluation of the collected data is carried out in such a way that it is not possible to draw conclusions about individuals. The survey data will be used exclusively for scientific and not for commercial purposes. Contact details will not be passed on to third parties. You can find detailed information here.