Appendix 1 1.1 Methodological summary Methodology 1.1.1 Overview The in-scope population consisted of all graduates who completed the requirements of an undergraduate or postgraduate award at a participating Australian higher education institution between March 2020 and February 2021. This included international graduates living outside Australia who studied at an Australian campus. Offshore graduates who studied at a campus outside Australia were excluded from the core survey. Table 17 provides a summary of the 2021 GOS, filtered to international graduates. A total of 119,765 international graduates from 95 institutions, including all 41 universities and 54 non-university higher education institutions (NUHEIs), were approached to participate. From a final in-scope sample of 113,678 graduates, responses were received from a total of 38,188 graduates. This represents an overall response rate of 33.6 per cent for international graduates (40.4% for domestic graduates). The final international graduate response rate for the 2021 GOS (33.6 per cent) was higher than 2020 (32.3 per cent) but slightly below results for 2019 (34.7 per cent) and 2018 (33.9 per cent). For the QILT suite of surveys, ‘response rate’ is defined as completed surveys as a proportion of final sample, where final sample excludes unusable sample (e.g., no contact details), out-of-scope and opted-out. This definition of response rates differs from industry standards by treating certain non-contacts and refusals as being ineligible for the response rate calculation. Table 17 2021 GOS operational overview, international graduates 1 2020 November 2021 May 2021 Total collection Project element Universities NUHEIs Total Universities NUHEIs Total Universities NUHEIs Total Number of participating 41 51 92 41 51 92 41 54 95 institutions Number of graduates 50,455 9,556 60,011 55,369 4,385 59,754 105,824 13,941 119,765 approached Final 'in-scope' sample 48,280 8,950 57,230 52,352 4,096 56,448 100,632 13,046 113,678 Number of completed 15,925 3,175 19,100 17,404 1,684 19,088 33,329 4,859 38,188 surveys Overall response rate 33.0% 35.5% 33.4% 33.2% 41.1% 33.8% 33.1% 37.2% 33.6% Analytic unit Graduate Mode of data collection Online NB: In-scope sample excludes any approached graduates who unsubscribed, refused, had unusable contact information or were identified as out of scope during fieldwork. 2021 GOS International Report 1 Includes February supplementary round outcomes 25