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METHODOLOGICAL NOTES

1. Data sources

The used variables are sourced from:

• administrative data:these information come from the administrative archives of universities that are involved in the survey, with the only exception of the variable “residence”. In this case the lacking administrative datum may be supplied by the information given in the AlmaLaurea questionnaire, when it contains data regarding the residence. The variables that are taken into consideration are: gender, date of birth, information related to the attended degree course, year of enrolment, graduation date and mark and duration of studies;

• survey on graduates’ profile:it mainly regards the variable “pure/hybrids”, which -as it will be further explained in the section nr. 6 - makes a distinction between post-reform graduates: those who completed their course of studies entirely and exclusively under the new system are defined as “pure” graduates, whereas those who achieved the degree completing a course of studies initiated under the former pre-reform system are defined as “hybrid” graduates; This information can be obtained by combining some administrative data with the answers given by graduands in the AlmaLaurea questionnaire, which is has been submitted to them before graduation;

• survey on graduates’ employment conditions it includes all information related to the employment status of graduates at one, three and five years on from graduation. As for the employment status at one year on from graduation, the only information available regards post-reform graduates, whereas the information available on the employment status at three and five years on from graduation is related just to pre-reform graduates.

2. Survey methods

The survey of 2009 on graduates’ employment condition confirmed on the whole the survey project that has been successfully experimented last year. The survey covered the whole population of post-reform graduates of 2008 (first-level degree, second-level degree and single-cycle second-level degree, but also the graduates of the old pre-reform degree course in Primary Schooling Sciences) who have been interviewed one year on from graduation. The high number of graduates involved in the survey enables us to make available data whose elaboration even reach the “degree course” level, in order to meet the information needs of the Ministry of Education, University and Research¹ and to meet the requirements of the Italian universities, in particular the small sized ones.

The same consideration, which has been leading AlmaLaurea to profoundly revise the survey methods since 2008, have also been applied this year. The remarkable number of post-reform graduates that have been interviewed (over 160,000), together with the economic difficulties afflicting universities, have made necessary not only a painful reduction of the survey questionnaire, but also a meaningful review of the survey methods. This objective has been achieved through the introduction of two survey methods, i.e., CAWI (Computer-Assisted Web Interview) and CATI (Computer-Assisted Telephone Interview). In this way survey costs and time have been reduced and this solution has represented a considerable saving. In particular, all graduates having an e-mail address (amounting to 89% of the total number) have been contacted via e-mail and asked to answer to a questionnaire which has been entirely programmed by AlmaLaurea and which is located in the web site of the Consortium itself. This procedure also included three reminders at the most. Afterwards, all graduates who had not answered to the online questionnaire – together with those who don’t have an e-mail address- have been contacted by phone, in order to achieve the usual answer rates of the AlmaLaurea surveys. In order to guarantee the fundamental time gap between the achievement of the degree and the interview, the graduates have been contacted in two different periods: those who graduated in the period between January and June² have been interviewed between April and June 2009, whereas those who graduated in the period between July and December³ have been contacted between September and December.

Contrary to this, the traditional survey on pre-reform graduates has kept the common structure unaltered: the survey has, therefore, involved all the graduates (over 49,000) of the summer session of 2006 and 2004, who have been involved respectively at three and five years on from the achievement of the degree. For these cohorts the survey has been carried out with the CATI method and it took place between September and November 2009⁴. However, the above mentioned reasons have made necessary a reduction of the survey questionnaire also for this survey method. For the first time since the beginning of the AlmaLaurea survey on graduates’ employment condition the Consortium decided that it was better to exclude from the survey the pre-reform graduates to be interviewed one year on from graduation. Pre-reform graduates are the last products of a disappearing structure of studies which has been completely reformed. Moreover, the characteristics of this cohort are so peculiar, that they do not provide cause for reflection.

As previously mentioned, all available data have, therefore, been divided into the two main categories, i.e., pre-reform and post-reform and the latter is also divided into: first-level degree, second-level degree, single-cycle second level degree and also the old pre-reform degree course in Primary Schooling Sciences. This inevitably enhances the level of complexity of the analysis that can be carried out on data. As a result of the specific features of their university careers, single-cycle second level degree holders of 2006 and 2004 have been equalled to pre-reform graduates.

It should also been taken into account that in some cases the number of graduates involved in the survey do not exactly coincides with the figures reported in the statistics related to the graduates’ profile. This is mainly due to subsequent integrations or changes made on the databank after writing this report.

3. Universities involved in the survey

There are 49 universities taking part to the 12^th survey. 43 of them are also involved in the survey focused on collecting data three years on from graduation and 34 of them in the one regarding the data collection carried out five years on from graduation.

Pre-reform graduates of the summer session of 2006 have already been involved in a similar survey in 2007 aimed at the data collection one year on from graduation. The graduates of the summer session of 2004 have been contacted another two times: in 2005 (one year on from graduation) and in 2007 (three years on from graduation).

On the basis of the tables main purpose (guaranteeing to each university taking part in the Consortium the access to a set of data that, in the specific case of post-reform graduates, is so detailed that it even supplies information on the single degree courses), data have not been subjected to a re-proportioning statistical procedure. This procedure is generally used for the data that are presented during the yearly AlmaLaurea meeting. In this case the re-proportioning is fundamental to make sure that the assessments made do represent the situation of the Italian graduates.

Comments on some cohorts which have not been investigated

The survey of 2009 on graduates’ employment conditions excluded the graduates who have earned two degrees during the reference periods, because there was the risk to interview them two times but with reference to different degrees. In particular, as for those who hold both a first- and second-level degree, only the second-level one has been taken into consideration, whereas in case of students having two degrees of the same level, only the first one (in terms of graduation date) has been taken into account for the analysis. If a student earned a pre-reform and then a post-reform degree, the prominence has been given to the post-reform one.

It has also been preferred to exclude the graduates who have earned the academic degree on the basis of special conventions. This case mainly regards: the workers of the health sector whose professional experience has been acknowledged by the University of Chieti-Pescara, which awarded them a first-level degree in one of the health sectors' faculties; the members of the armed forces and police officers who have achieved a degree in Organisation and Management Sciences at the University of Tuscia. Moreover, 75 graduates, who have officially achieved their degree at the Polytechnic of Turin although they have actually attended the degree course at the Polytechnic of Milan (Alta Scuola Politecnica), have also been excluded.

4. Availability of data

Available data can be consulted by making selections in each of the three sections composing the search engine. After having selected the survey of interest (on the basis of the survey year), the kind of degree course and the years on from graduation, you can select some subcohorts of the graduate population and in this way you focus the analysis on a well defined cohort. Moreover, you can also compare several groups of graduates through an analysis based on a specific comparison variable.

Selection variables of the survey

You can select the survey of interest on the basis of the survey year, years on from graduation (one, three or five) and kind of degree course (first-level, second-level, single-cycle second level degree, pre-reform and not-reformed).

Available variables for selection

The available variables for selection are: university, faculty, degree subject grouping, degree course grouping, degree course. In order to facilitate the consultation of the different sections, all the available variables are displayed, but some of them are active only after having made a particular selection. For example, the variable “degree course grouping”, which is available only for post-reform graduates, can be displayed only after having selected a post-reform degree course.

Likewise, also the variable “degree course" regarding post-reform graduates can be selected only after having chosen the university and having selected at least one variable among “faculty”, "degree subject grouping” and “degree course grouping”. This is determined by the fact that the variable uses the codes of the databank containing information on the supply of study opportunities: to each degree course activated in a given university (or sometimes even in a given city) is associated a univocal code, which do not allows aggregations of different universities. In some cases a degree course activated by a given university may change its identification code, although its name may remain the same. This may happen, for example, as a consequence of changes made to the subjects of the degree course or of a change of the degree course grouping in which the course is included and so on. In such cases the same courses are treated separately, since the codes they have are different. In order to facilitate the selection of such particular cases, the academic year up to which the course was still active (e.g. “up to the academic year…”) or the academic year in which the course was started (“from the academic year …”) have been indicated next to the name of the course.

Available variables for comparison

The available variables for comparison are: kind of degree course (first-level degree, second-level degree, single-cycle second degree, old pre-reform degree course, pre-reform), university, faculty, degree subject grouping, degree course grouping, degree course, gender, pure/hybrids, employment conditions at graduation, enrolment on a second-level degree. The last four variables can be selected only as variables for comparison and not as variables for selection. in particular, “pure/hybrids” is available for all post-reform degrees (with the only exception of Primary Schooling Sciences), whereas “enrolment on a second-level degree” is available only for post-reform first-level degree holders. Moreover, for post-reform graduates the variable “degree course" identifies each degree course activated in a given university (or even in a given city,) therefore, you cannot compare different universities, since every degree course is associated to a univocal code.

Variables available only for some cohorts

Some information are available only for some degree courses. They mainly regard:

• all the questions of the 2nd section of the tables (“Attendance of a 2nd level degree course”) which are available only for first-level graduates (see 6, 7);

• the participation to training activities like doctoral research and postgraduate courses is obviously available only for pre-reform graduates, second-level degree holders, single-cycle second-level degree holders and graduates of Primary Schooling Sciences (see 6);

• “employment and training opportunities” is available only for first-level graduates (see 6);

• the answers on the ”employment conditions at graduation” have been collected through different methods for second-level graduates (see 6);

• “Usefulness of the 2nd level degree course for the current job” is available only for second level graduates.

In this document there are further information on the majority of the variables. These explanations regard both how the questionnaires were submitted and the answer modalities. Consult the relative paragraphs for further information.

5. Conventions and further notes

Lacking data and no-answers

The administrative data are always complete, with the only exception of the variable “graduation mark” (1 lacking datum regarding the cohort of 2004 pre-reform graduates).

The variable pure/hybrid (whose definition has been reported in the section 6), is partly based on data collected through the questionnaires supplied to graduates before graduation. For this reason the information available do not regard all graduates but only a part of them, namely the remarkable percentage who answered to the questionnaire. More specifically, this information is not available for 9,6% of first-level graduates, 10,3% of second-level graduates and 10,7% of single-cycle second level degree holders.

As for the survey on graduates’ employment conditions, the only variable for which a remarkable share of "no-answers" is found (i.e., some people decided to take part to the survey but not to answer to a specific question) is- as it could be expected- the “Average monthly net earnings”. As for this variable, the non-answers rate amount to: 4,1% of first-level graduates at one year on from graduation; 2,9% of second level graduates; 5,2% for single-cycle second-level degree holders; 2,3% for Primary Schooling Sciences graduates; pre-reform graduates: 4,2% for those at three years on from graduation and 3,9% for those at five years on from graduation. For all the other variables that have been analysed, the no-answers rate is lower.

In order to facilitate the reading and the comprehension of the tables, all no-answers have been omitted. For this reason the sum of the percentages may be in some cases lower than 100.

A share of lacking data is found for the following comparison variables: employment conditions at graduation, pure/hybrids and enrolment on a second-level degree course. To facilitate the comprehension of the tables this share has never been reported, although it is included in the relevant total, i.e. "selected cohort".

Rounded-off numbers

Percentages have been approximated to the first decimal place: because of this rounding off of the figures, the sum of percentages is sometimes different from 100. The only exceptions to this are the cases in which there are “no-answers” (see 5).

Conventional signs

The hyphen "-" is used in the tables when the analysed phenomenon has been found, but no cases occurred. The percentage value 0,0 indicates that the phenomenon has been found and that some cases occurred, but with a percentage that is lower than 0,05.

Finally, the abbreviation "n.p." (that is the Italian for "not available; n/a")indicates that the elaboration has not been reported, since the data didn't actually concern the analysed cohort (e.g., the variable "kind of work activity" would not be available if no graduate of the analysed cohort was employed; the situation would be the same for “characteristics of the second-level degree course", if no first-level graduate had enrolled on a second-level degree course).

The symbol "*" indicates that statistics have not been calculated, since they would have referred to a very small cohort (less than 5 units): see 5. § 5).

Useful information for a correct interpretation of the results

As already stated before, the tables give a detailed report of all cohorts having at least 5 graduates. Therefore, if the relevant group is below 5 units (see for example the table concerning the first-level graduates of the faculty of Engineering of the University of Molise at one year on from graduation), in this case only the number of graduates, the number of interviewees and the response rate concerning the survey on the employment conditions are reported. All the other statistical data are unreported and percentages are replaced by the “*” symbol.

While analysing the results it is important to keep into account the number of people in each cohort: if the number of graduates to be analysed is low, then you should interpret the results carefully.

Moreover, you should also examine carefully the case of some cohorts of graduates that are characterised by particular educational and training backgrounds. There are some degree courses which stand out among all the others, because of their importance and peculiarity. In these courses a huge number of graduates (pre-reform and single-cycle second level degree courses) take part to postgraduate training activities and, as a consequence, they inevitably retard their access to the labour market. The most common examples are the faculties of Medicine and Law. However, it’s also important to take into consideration other variables, like the employment condition at graduation, or, as for first-level graduates, the choice to combine study and work. Both elements significantly influence other factors, like employment opportunities and the characteristics of the job held. As for the first variable, it should not be forgotten that those who worked at the time of graduation generally experience an easier access to the labour market, since they already have the necessary experience for getting a job, even at better conditions. Obviously, those who stay in the job they held before graduation (and in particular, at one year on from graduation) have even better conditions as for employment security and earnings. Also the second factor that has been highlighted (that is the choice of first-level graduates to combine study and work) has a great influence on the characteristics of the job that has been held, which is generally a temporary or a part-time job and whose wages are low. Both variables can be taken into consideration as comparison variables in the tables, so that immediate comparisons can be done between different cohorts.

Comments on some faculties

If a university or a faculty has its courses in different seats, the presentation of data in the tables reflects this subdivision, so that the results about the employment status of graduates can be distinguished for each seat. This subdivision is done even more so when within a single university there are faculties which are officially distributed among different seats.

It’s important to stress that some faculties can be found in just one university. In this case, the interpretation of the results of the overall group of investigated universities should be done with the necessary attention.

A further comment on pre-reform graduates: it rarely happens that there are no graduates of a faculty in a particular year (see for example the heading “Architecture of the University of Bologna”, for which there were only 20 pre-reform graduates in 2006 and none in 2004). In this case all relevant elaborations have not been reported.

Meaning of the word "degree" in the available elaborations

In order to facilitate the consultation of the tables, the Consortium AlmaLaurea decided to use the term "degree" without any other more specific information related to the kind of degree that had been analysed (first-level, second-level etc). The only exception are the elaborations that are available for only one kind of degree course. In this case the kind of degree is specified, so that the analysed cohort can be better identified.

6. Definitions and indices

Pure/hybrid post-reform graduates

Post-reform graduates (first-level, second-level or single-cycle second-level degree holders) that are defined as “pure” are those who completed their course of studies entirely and exclusively under the new system. “Hybrid” graduates are those who achieved a first-level degree completing a course of studies initiated under the former system.

The procedure that is used to identify pure/hybrid graduates is based on the following information. As for first-level graduates, the following factors are considered: enrolment year, graduation year and the answers given by graduates to the following questions that are part of the questionnaire submitted to them before graduation:

• have you achieved your degree completing a course of studies initiated under the previous system or have you just changed your degree course? If yes, where you in the pre-reform or in the post-reform system at the time when you made these changes?

• Have you achieved another academic degree (university diploma, degree etc.) previously to this academic experience? If yes, what kind of course have you attended?

• Have you started any other academic course different from the current one, but without completing it? If yes, what kind of course have you attended?

As for second-level graduates, these factors are taken into consideration: the year of the completion of studies and the answers given by graduates to the following questions of the questionnaire:

• what kind of degree course have you achieved before enrolling on the second-level degree course that you are now completing?

• In addition to the above mentioned course, have you made any other academic experience? If yes, what kind of course have you attended?

• In order to achieve your second-level degree you have obtained 300 training credits. Have you obtained a part of these credits within a pre-reform system?

Finally, as for single-cycle second level degree holders the factor that is taken into consideration is the enrolment year.

In the tables in which there is the disaggregation between pure/hybrids, the data on the selected graduates population also includes a share of interviewees whose academic studies cannot be reconstructed (i.e. the analysed variable they belong to) without any information relating to the previous academic experiences.

Enrolment on a second-level degree course

As for first-level graduates, it should be taken into account that:

• “is currently enrolled in a 2nd level degree course” includes not only the first-level degree holders who have enrolled in a second level degree, but also the 256 graduates who have declared to have enrolled in a 4-year degree course envisaged under the previous system (i.e., the Primary Schooling Sciences degree course, which has not been reformed⁵.);

• “has been enrolled in a 1st/2nd level degree course, but is not enrolled anymore” includes not only those who have abandoned their studies within the first year of enrolment, but also the graduates who have successfully completed the new course of studies they had undertaken after graduating in 2008.

Postgraduate training

For obvious reasons related to the training courses that can be attended after the achievement of the first-level degree, activities like “doctoral research” and “second level master’s degree” are not included in the elaborations related to post-reform first-level degree holders⁶. As a consequence, the variable "has taken part to at least one training activity” is calculated in a different way for first-level degree-holders. Moreover, there are also other information which contribute to the statistics of this variable, such as the participation to the national civilian service (this activities is not reported in the tables, although it has been observed for all the interviewees).

EMPLOYMENT AND FURTHER TRAINING CONDITION OF FIRST-LEVEL GRADUATES

The employment and further training condition of first-level graduates has been presented through two different elaborations: in addition to the traditional elaboration having three variables (“is working”, “doesn't work and doesn’t look for a job” and “doesn't work, but looks for a job”), which is useful to make comparisons with other kinds of analysed degree courses, also another subdivision into five variables has been reported (“works and is not attending a 2nd level degree course”, “works and is attending a 2nd level degree course”, “doesn't work and is attending a 2nd level degree course”, “doesn't work, is not attending a 2nd level degree course and is not looking for a job” “doesn't work, is not attending a 2nd level degree course but is looking for a job”, so that prominence is given to the employment and training experiences made by graduates after the completion of studies.

The share of employed students is obviously obtained by the sum of those who work and those who work and are also enrolled in a second level degree course. Likewise, the total number of those who enrolled on a second-level degree course has been obtained by summing the number of those who combine study and work and the number of those who just study.

Therefore, the graduates who look/don’t look for a job also include those who don’t have a job, are not enrolled on a second-level degree course and state that they are/are not looking for a job.

Employment condition and employment rate

Similarly to the ISTAT survey on the employment condition of graduates, in the elaborations of AlmaLaurea the interviewees who stated that they were carrying out a paid work activity are considered to be in employment, excluding from this category all those under training (traineeships, apprenticeships, doctoral research and schools of postgraduate studies). It can be deduced from this definition that having an income is a necessary but not sufficient condition to define a graduate as employed.

The “employment rate” results from the ratio between employed graduates and interviewees and it is calculated in accordance with the ISTAT (Italian Board of Statistics) definition of labour force- continuous survey. According to this “less restrictive” definition, those who stated that they were carrying out a paid activity are considered to be in employment. All those under training are included in this category provided that they are paid⁷.

Unemployment rate

Unemployment rate has been calculated in accordance with the ISTAT (Italian Board of Statistics) definition within the continuous survey on workforce.

Unemployment rate results from the ratio between the number of those seeking employment and the labour force. Employment-seeking people, or the unemployed, are those who are not in employment, who state that they are in search of a job, that they have performed an “active” job-seeking action in the 30 days prior to the interview and that they are immediately prepared (within two weeks’ time) to take up a job, if offered. To these ones should be added those who stated that they have already found a job, which they will nevertheless take up in the future, but who also declared that they are prepared to accept a job within two weeks, should this be offered. By doing this, they would therefore anticipate the beginning of the work activity.

The labour force results from the sum of employment-seeking people and those holding jobs (according to the ISTAT-definition- Workforce).

Percentage of graduates who is neither working, nor looking for a job, but is attending a degree course or is doing a training activity

In order to give to the universities taking part to the Consortium all useful information for meeting the "transparency requirements", as regulated by the article No. 2 of the already mentioned Ministerial Decree (D.M.) No. 544 of the 31st October 2007 and by the Directorial Decree No. 61 of the 10th June 2008 (in particular, see the section “Information on degree courses, subjects and other training activities”) in the tables are supplied all necessary information related to the percentage of graduates who do not work and do not look for a job because they continue studies (in another degree course or any internship/apprenticeship that is compulsory to enter the profession). In particular, the adopted definition includes all the graduates who are carrying out internships/apprenticeships, doctoral researches, postgraduate schools, Italian master’s degrees (first or second level) and, as for first-level graduates, other degree courses (any kind of degree courses, including the enrolment in academies or conservatories, such as: Academy of Fine Arts, National Academy of dramatic arts or dance, ISIA (High Institute for Artistic Industries) and conservatoires.

Employment conditions at graduation

The information on the employment condition at graduation are available for all the analysed kinds of degrees. This is due to the distinction made between those who continue in the job undertaken before graduation, those who do not continue in the job undertaken before graduation and those who have started to work later. Moreover, for second-level graduates it is possible to isolate those who have started to work even before enrolling on a second-level degree course from those who have found a job while attending the second-level degree course.

Effectiveness of the degree within the current job

The effectiveness of the degree, which synthesizes two important aspects related to the usefulness and exploitability of the degree on the labour market, derives from the combination of questions concerning the use of the skills acquired at university and the necessity (both formal and substantial) of the academic qualification for the job activity. According to the interpretation offered in the scheme below, you can distinguish five levels of effectiveness:

• very effective, for those holding jobs for which the degree is required by law or de facto necessary and the skills acquired at university are used extensively;

• effective, for those holding jobs for which the degree is not required by law but is however useful and the acquired skills are widely used, or the qualification is required by law and skills are used to a lesser extent;

• fairly effective, for those holding jobs for which the degree is not required by law but is de facto necessary or useful and the skills acquired at university are used only to some extent;

• not very effective, for those holding jobs for which the degree is neither required by law, nor useful to any extent whatsoever; the acquired skills are used to a lesser extent, or the qualification is not required by the law but useful and the acquired skills are not used at all;

• not in the least effective, for those holding jobs for which the degree is neither required by law, nor useful in any way and the acquired skills are not used at all.

This classification excludes no-answers and also some “anomalous” characteristics which cannot be included in one of the above mentioned categories: in the survey carried out at one year on from graduation the modality “cannot be estimated” corresponds to 2,3% of the employees; it also corresponds to 2,4% in the survey carried out at three years on from graduation and to 2,3% in the one at five years on from graduation. As for these values, there wasn’t any particular differences between the kinds of degree courses, except for a slight subrepresentation in the cohort of the single-cycle second-level degree holders and of the not-reformed Primary Schooling Sciences degree course, in which the modality “cannot be estimated” corresponds respectively to 1,7 % and 1,6%.

Table 1- Definition of the effectiveness of graduation

7. Comments on some variables and relative aggregations

Age at graduation

The average age at graduation is calculated on the basis of the age-considered as an entire number- and of the date of birth and of the graduation date.

Graduation mark

The graduation mark is here expressed on a scale of 110/110. This also happens for the pre-reform students of the Faculty of Engineering of Bologna, although in this faculty the graduation mark is normally expressed on a scale of 100/100. For calculating the average marks, it has been established that the mark 110/110 with honour corresponds to 113/110. For these reasons, you can find some cases of average graduation mark being higher than 110.

Duration of studies

It is the period between the 5th November (a date that is conventionally considered the beginning of the courses) of the year of registration and the graduation date. For the second level degree courses we consider the period between the 5^th November (of the same year of registration to the above mentioned second level degree course) and the graduation date.

Reasons for not enrolling on a second-level degree

It should also be borne in mind that:

• "working reasons" includes the answers given by graduates who work or had already been working at the time of graduation or who have subsequently found a job which led them to do not enrol on a second level degree course, or who just wanted to access the labour market as soon as possible;

• "other reasons" includes the modalities "the degree course applied selective entry and the student had not been admitted", "the student had problems with the attribution of educational credits", "other reasons".

Reasons for enrolling on a second-level degree course

This data processing is referred to all the students who enrolled on a second level degree course or on the non-reformed Primary Schooling Sciences degree course, after having earned a first level degree. It does not take into account the fact that students may be still enrolled or not on the second level degree at one year on from first-level degree achievement.

University and faculty of enrolment on the second-level degree course

To evaluate the characteristics of the second-level degree course chosen by first-level graduates, the Consortium took into consideration the university and the faculty of enrolment on the second-level degree course (including the non-reformed degree course in Primary Schooling Sciences). It should also be mentioned that in a given number of cases the change of university automatically leads to the change of faculty too, because of the different breakdown of training supply of each university. In such cases, the change is merely formal. Therefore, the information related to the nature of the second- level degree and of the first-level degree should be taken into consideration for a correct interpretation.

Time-to-entry into the labour market

The time-to-entry into the labour market is calculated only for those graduates who have started their current work activity after the achievement of the academic qualification. Therefore, all the graduates who continue in the job held before completion of the studies are excluded. The time elapsed between graduation and the beginning of the search for employment, as well as the time elapsed between the beginning of the search for employment and the finding of the first job were calculated by excluding those stating that they haven't ever seeked employment.

Kind of work activity

It should also be borne in mind that:

• "collaboration" includes project-based contracts, coordinated ongoing collaboration contracts, ad-hoc contracts, supply-of-personal-service contracts and, in particularly, the supply of professional guidance.

• "Other kinds of flexible contracts" includes: “socially useful” employment contracts and contracts “of public usefulness”, jobs made available under a special “professional insertion plan”, interim work contracts, “associate” employment contracts, job on call, shared job and “occasional, accessory” work contracts.

• “total for permanent job" represents the sum of the "self-employment" and "permanent employment" modalities.

• "total for flexible contracts" represents the sum of the following modalities: "fixed-term employment contract", "collaboration/consulting", "other flexible contracts".

Branch of activity

The 22 branches of activity have been aggregated on the basis of the analogy that exists between the sectors and the percentage of answers of each option.

It should be emphasized that:

• the modality "building industry" also includes "construction, planning, installation and maintenance of buildings and plants".

• the modality "chemistry/energy" also includes "petrochemistry, gas, water and mining";

• "manufacturing industry” also includes the following modalities: "press and publishing", "electronics and electrotechnics", "manufacturing" (i.e., food production, tobaccos, textile, clothing, leather, footwear, wood, furnitures, paper, gum and plastic).

• "commerce” also includes "hotels and other public commercial concerns".

• “transports, advertising and communications” includes “postal service, transports and travels” and “advertising, communications and telecommunications”;

• "consulting" includes the following modalities: "legal advice, administrative advice, accountancy" and "other professional and guidance activities"

• "other services" includes the modalities "cultural and recreational services and sports", "other social and personal services" and "other branch".

Net monthly earnings

As for the question on net monthly earnings, there are several earning brackets in Euros: “up to €250”, “251-500”, “501-750”, “751-1.000”, “1.001-1.250”, “1.251-1.500”, “1.501-1.750”, “1.751-2.000”, “2.001-2.250”, “2.251-2.500”, “2.501-2.750”, “2.751-3.000”, “over €3.000”. The average has been calculated by excluding no-answers and by using the central value of the earning bracket (except the first and the last one, which amount respectively to 200 and 3250). Rarely there is no graduate answering to the question. In such cases the abbreviation "n.p." (in English "not available; n/a") is used.

Kind of improvement observed in the job

This data processing regards only the graduates who continue in the job held before graduation. Moreover, the percentages related to the different aspects in which graduates observed an improvement in the job are obviously referred only to those graduates who have actually observed it.

Reasons for not looking for a job

It should be taken into consideration that “waiting to be contacted by the employer” also includes in a broad sense those who are waiting to work on a self-employment basis.

All services targeted at companies are carried out by AlmaLaurea srl, which is entirely controlled by the AlmaLaurea Consortium. It is authorised to carry out research and recruit the personnel and it is enrolled to the register of employment agencies under section IV (definitive licence: see reference number 0001543 of 21/01/2008)