whole study program and know the institution from inside. Data is collected which cannot be get from another source. In US-American publication this feature is described as alumni advantage: Alumni are the only constituency that can determine if curricular or program changes have the ability to weather the test of time. [...] (they) can provide longitudinal information that is difficult to get anyplace else". (Shoemaker 1999: 86). Due to the former student status, graduate surveys are one of the most accepted instruments of quality assurance. The INCHER-Lessi survey of Higher Education teaching staff comes to the result that 70 % of academic staff in Germany like regular graduate surveys (answer "reasonable"; only 10 % answered "not reasonable"). Other surveys (Kaufmann 2009, Nickel 2007) confirm that graduate surveys are the most accepted instrument of quality assurance among teaching staff.

The potential of graduate surveys in comparison to higher education and labor market statistics lies in the combination of objective and subjective data. In addition to the purely "quantitative" criteria of professional success (income, position, employment, etc.), they also collect data on individual satisfaction and motivation. Furthermore, graduate surveys can trace individual study paths, motivation for study choices as well as the transition to work and the professional career. Self-assessments of graduates allow statements about the use of knowledge acquired during their studies, their match with the requirements of the job and about the adequacy of the employment. Furthermore, the respondents can retrospectively assess the conditions in their course of studies and at their higher education institution. Thus, with the help of the graduate surveys not only information about a big number of topics can be gained, but it can also be causally linked in the analysis: individual study requirements ("input"), characteristics of the resource / study conditions and processes of teaching and study ("process"), competence development ("output") and transition from higher education institution to work and professional success ("outcome"). What makes graduate surveys special regarding the assessment of higher education performance is that they not only measure output and outcome, but also contribute to explain it and therefore make a long-term outcome-oriented assessment of higher education performance possible.

The gained information provides the higher education institutions with various possible usages for higher education development and for improving their service offers. Thus graduate surveys allow for nominal actual comparison in the area of study course development and evaluation. In this context the question is whether professional work tasks and competency assessment of graduates match with their respective expectation and study goals.

- The information offers the Career Service and the study counseling insights about study and professional careers that they can pass on to the students like successful application strategies or the kind of competencies which are required by the employers. If necessary, based on the results, the offers for acquiring key and further qualifications can be extended. Additionally, the retrospective evaluation of offered services can be used for strength and weaknesses analysis.