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2009 Survey.
2008 Graduates’ profile

"Assessment of academic training pathways"

A decade after the Declaration of Bologna.
The progeny of the university reform: an analysis of
first- and second-level graduates, a patchy framework

87% of the about 190 000 graduates who concluded their studies in 2008 in 49 Italian universities taking part in AlmaLaurea has concluded a degree course that had been created with the University Reform in 2001. Among them, about 110 000 graduates have obtained a 1st level degree and more than 50 000 have obtained a 2nd level degree. As for the latter ones, 10 000 of them have obtained a single-cycle second level degree.
This confirms that there is no "average profile of the graduate" and no "average profile of the faculties x and y", but manifold "profiles" corresponding to manifold aspects, such as: family, area of residence, pre-academic studies (kind of diploma achieved), the breadth of education provision, available facilities, dynamicity of the local labour market etc. These factors lead us to extend the analysis to something more than aggregated data. In this way, the following factors can be observed: the extreme variability that characterises the different analysed aspects and the differences between the degree courses in which the students have achieved the best results and the ones which are clearly less successful. The reasons for which there are patchy results can be sometimes deduced; however, understanding these reasons is not an objective of the survey and they can be obtained through the in-depth analysis made by each faculty, degree course grouping and university.
This is, therefore, an analysis which represents a patchy framework and which is more specifically focused on the role of faculties and degree course groupings rather than on single universities. As regards this paper, the analysis concerns first-level graduates, second-level graduates and single-cycle second level degree holders.

IDENTIKIT OF OVER 100 000 FIRST LEVEL DEGREE GRADUATES

Social background and high school diploma

As for the high school background, it confirms a particular trend: the number of young people coming from technical or vocational secondary schools and from less favoured family backgrounds who access academic studies is rising: they correspond to 34% of the total number of students, compared to 33% of two years ago. As for the first-level graduates of 2008, the share of those who have at least one graduated parent is 23%. However, this situation is not the same for all the study courses. In degree course groupings like teaching and healthcare professions the share of those who have at least one graduated parent is less than 12%; contrary to this, as regards the graduates of the humanities and engineering groupings, the share of achieved graduation in the family is 2 times and a half higher (i.e., 30%).
Parallelly, the percentage of young people coming from the working class is rising it ranges from 21,9% in 2005 to 24,5% in 2008. Their presence in the different study courses is specular to the above mentioned cases: they represent more than 30 percent of graduates in the teaching and healthcare professions groupings, but they account for only 17-20 percent in the architecture and humanities groupings. These are small changes, but they meaningfully confirm the fact t hat the reform has fostered the access to university for commonly disadvantaged population segments.

Completion of studies: age at graduation, students exceeding the prescribed time limits, satisfaction

The average age at graduation is 26 years (in 2001 it was 28), but there is a wide range of differentiations for the different degree course groupings. The average age at graduation of the graduates of 2008 is lower (24,5 years); for the students of the engineering, languages and geo-biological groupings. The highest age at graduation (28 years) is reached by the graduates in the teaching and healthcare professions groupings, in which a higher number of graduates combine work and study and the age at enrolment is higher.
The overall data is influenced by the age at enrolment of graduates which has risen with the introduction of the university reform. In 2008 21% of young people enrolled at least two years above standard enrolment age (19 years). 7,8% of them enrolled aged over ten years above the standard. The gap between the different degree course groupings is considerable. It ranges between 47 percent of graduates of the healthcare professions grouping, 34,5 percent of the teaching grouping- as previously stated- and less that 6 percent of the engineering grouping.
Although the share of graduates completing their studies within the prescribed completion time is slightly lower than the one of 2007, it represents 41% of graduates. This percentage is four times higher than the share (9,5%) which represented the population of Italian graduates before the university reform. 26 graduates out of 100 complete their studies within the first year exceeding the official time limit for studies.
However, the degree completion times varies considerably according to the different degree course groupings. 74 graduates out of 100 of the healthcare professions grouping and 42% of the graduates of the political-social grouping complete their studies within the prescribed completion time of 3 years. Contrary to this, only 27 graduates out of 100 of the law grouping and 30 out of 100 of the teaching grouping completed their studies perfectly within the allocated time-to-graduation.

Graduates’ assessment of the academic experience made 35 graduates out of 100 are significantly satisfied with the course they have concluded. Another 52 graduates out of 100 are moderately satisfied. One fifth of graduates (21%) are significantly satisfied with the relationships had with the teachers. This percentage includes: 40-42 percent of the graduates in the law, economics and statistics and chemistry and pharmacology groupings and, at the other end of the scale, only 23 graduates out of 100 in the languages grouping and 22 of their equivalents in architecture.
Another 63 graduates out of 100 are moderately satisfied. This regards above all the graduates in the healthcare professions (29,5 percent) and their equivalents in the chemistry and pharmacology grouping (27 percent). A more critical opinion comes from the graduates in the architecture and psychology groupings: respectively, only 13% and 14% of them are significantly satisfied.
If they could turn back time, then 67 graduates out of 100 would repeat in the same course of studies and in the same university the experience that they have just concluded. Another 11 would study in the same university, but they would choose another degree course. A similar number of graduates would make the opposite choice: they would choose the same degree course, but not the same university. Another 7 graduates would change both university and faculty. 74-75 percent of the graduates in the economics and statistics grouping and of the newly graduates engineers are firmly convinced that they would repeat the same experience. Also 60 graduates out of 100 in the architecture and physical education groupings and 54 out of 100 in the languages grouping have the same opinion.

The years at university: lessons, internships and the Erasmus Programme

Class attendance rates continue to rank at surprisingly high values. 67 graduates out of 100 stated to have regularly attended over three-quarters of the classes prescribed in course programmes. However, profoundly different values emerge in this issue and they range between 86% of graduates in the engineering grouping, 91% in the healthcare professions and 40% in the law grouping.
The University reform has placed the study-abroad experience at a disadvantage. 5,3 graduates out of 100 took part to the Erasmus Programme or other EU Programmes. This value include 23,5 percent of graduates in the languages grouping 1,8 percent graduates in the healthcare professions, psychologies and chemistry and pharmacology.
Contrary to this, the internship and training experiences, which are fully recognized by the university, rank at high values, since 60 graduates out of 100 choose them: 94 out of 100 newly graduated students in agriculture, 86 and 85 graduates out of 100 respectively in the psychologies and teaching groupings, 47 graduates out of 100 in the economics and statistics grouping and even 22 newly graduated students in the law grouping. This is one of the positive aspects of the university reform: introducing academic students to the labour market even before graduation.

And after graduating?

After having achieved the first-level degree, 60,5% of graduates enrol in a second level degree course. Another 8% enrol in a Master's degree course or an advanced training course and 3% in a school of postgraduate studies.
Also in this case the analysis based on degree course groupings shows a wide gap. The graduates who more than anyone else long for a second-level degree are those of the psychologies (85%), geo-biology (81%) and engineering (80%). However, even in the degree courses in which the lowest values are found, the attraction for a second- level degree accounts for 46% of graduates in the teaching grouping, 40% of the newly-graduated students in physical education and 20% of the graduates in the healthcare professions.

SECOND-LEVEL GRADUATES

This is the fist time we can describe the characteristics of the second-level graduates given to the high number of them. Also in this case the analysis covers all graduates, i.e. 40.391 second-level graduates.
56% of gradates graduates complete the academic studies within the prescribed completion time. This average percentage includes values ranging from 91% of graduates in the healthcare professions grouping and 39% of graduates in the architecture grouping). This value has fallen compared to 2007, when 67 graduates out of 100 completed their studies within the allocated time-to-graduation. However, it is bound to bottom up, as it happened with first-level graduates.
The average age at graduation is 27 years (ranging between the 42,1 years of the graduates in the healthcare professions grouping, the 29,4 years of the teaching grouping and the 25,6 years of the chemistry and pharmacology grouping.
Second-level graduates come from a more favoured family background: graduated parents are found more frequently in the families of second-level graduates, rather than in the first-level graduates’ ones (30% against 23%).
The rates of class attendance are particularly high among second-level graduates. 74 graduates out of 100 stated to have regularly attended over three-quarters of the classes prescribed in course programmes.
While attending a second-level degree course, 55% of graduates have carried out traineeships or internships, 15% of them have studied abroad (8,5% by taking part to the Erasmus Programme). This last value on the study-abroad experience is higher than the value related to first-level graduates: it seems that the study-abroad experience that students could not make during the first-level degree course is postponed to the second-level degree course.
The experience made with the second-level degree is widely appreciated: 40 graduates out of 100 are significantly satisfied, another 49 give anyway a positive opinion on the matter. The majority of graduates (76%) would repeat the same experience in the same university and degree course.
And after graduating? 43 graduates out of 100 want to pursue postgraduate studies. 13% of them choose a PhD. Another 8 out of 100 choose a Master’s degree and less than 8 choose schools of postgraduate studies. The intention to continue regards 81% of graduates in the psychologies grouping, 60% of their equivalents in the law grouping, 59% in the geo-biology grouping and 62% in the healthcare professions grouping. The lowest values are fund in the engineering grouping (22%) and in the economics and statistics grouping (24% ).

SINGLE-CYCLE SECOND LEVEL DEGREE HOLDERS

A brief comment on the profile of single-cycle second level degree holders of 2008 (i.e., graduates in pharmacology, law, medicine and dentistry, veterinary medicine and -for some universities- also architecture and civil engineering) is also necessary. The survey was carried out on 10 476 graduates: less than half of them are represented by physicians and dentists.
The average age at graduation is about 26,5 years, with noteworthy differences regarding the single degree course groupings, whose values range between the 25,8 years in the law grouping and the 27,2 years in the architecture grouping). The graduates of this cohort come from more advantaged social backgrounds compared to the overall population of Italian graduates. 45 graduates out of 100 come from families where at least one parent is a graduate; 80% of graduates have received a scientific or humanities-based education and only 14% of graduates come from the working class.
Particularly positive are the performances of those graduates as regards the following characteristics: the final degree mark (106,1 out of 110 on average); degree completion times (47% of them complete studies within the prescribed time); study-abroad experience with EU Programmes involve 8,5 graduates out of 100 (this value ranges between 6% in the chemistry and pharmacology grouping to 16% in the architecture grouping).
A positive opinion has also been given by graduates on the experience made when asked if they would have repeated it. 72% of them would repeat the experience in the same university, or in another university according to 17% of them. The high rates of propensity to continue studies (70%) are considerably influenced by the share of graduates in medicine, who perceive the pursuance of postgraduate studies as inevitable for accessing the labour market. 92% of graduates want to continue studies and 82% of them choose a school of postgraduate studies. Contrary to this, 42% of graduates in the chemistry and pharmacology and architecture groupings want to continue studies.

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