Methodological Notes

The 2009 Graduate Profile is based on the combination of the following sets of data:

- administrative records of the 51 universities which became members of the AlmaLaurea before 2009;

- replies to the questionnaires AlmaLaurea administered.

The following universities were surveyed: Bari; Basilicata; Bologna; Bolzano; Cagliari; Calabria; Camerino; Cassino; Catania; Catanzaro; Chieti and Pescara; Ferrara; Firenze; Foggia; Genoa; L’Aquila; LIUC Castellanza; LUM Casamassima; Messina; Milan, IULM; Milan, San Raffaele; Modena and Reggio Emilia; Molise; Naples, Seconda Università; Padua; Parma; Perugia; Perugia, Foreigners; Eastern Piedmont; Reggio Calabria Mediterranea; Rome, Campus Bio-Medico; Rome, Foro Italico; Rome, La Sapienza; Rome, LUMSA; Rome, Tre; Salento; Salerno; Sannio; Sassari; Siena; Teramo; Turin; Turin, Polytechinc; Trento; Trieste; Udine; Valle d’Aosta; Venice, Ca’ Foscari; Venice, IUAV; Verona and Viterbo Tuscia.

The Report analyses degree holders of post-reform university courses (that were implemented by the Ministerial Decrees 509/99 and 270/04) and pre-reform degree holders.

Type of Degree Course	Number of graduates surveyed in 2009 Profile
FIRST LEVEL OR THREE YEAR DEGREES (post-reform)	110,626
SINGLE-CYCLE SPECIALIST (OR MASTER’S) DEGREES (post-reform)	12,907
MASTER’S (OR SECOND LEVEL) DEGREE (post-reform)	47,462
NON-REFORMED DEGREE COURSE (SCIENCES OF PRIMARY EDUCATION)	3,008
PRE-REFORM DEGREES	15,743
TOTAL	189,746

Some categories of graduates were excluded from the population analysed in the 2009 Profile since they gained their university qualification as a result of special arrangements. They amount to 2,665 graduates divided as follows: half of them are healthcare workers, whose professional experience was accredited by the University to the purpose of a three-year degree in the healthcare subject area; the second half includes members of the Law Enforcement Agencies and Armed Forces, public officials, and other categories of students who completed one of the courses that had been specifically designed for them.

Sources and ‘worlds’ of reference

The documentation analysed here takes into account the following groups:

all degree holders (189,746), in terms of Personal Details, Secondary School Performances, Academic Performances at University (with the exception of previous university experiences and motivations for choosing a degree course). The sources for those information are universities’ administrative records, except for information concerning place of residence and high-school leaving certificate (administrative records were integrated with data collected through AlmaLaurea questionnaires, when available), and for high-school grades (when grades were missing in the university records they were retrieved through the questionnaire);
all degree holders who filled and returned the questionnaire (173,384, that is 91.9% of the overall number), as for the sections Study Situation, Working Activities during University Studies, Assessment of University Experience, Foreign Languages and IT skills, Further Education Prospects, Employment Prospects and for previous university experiences and motivations for choosing a degree course (section Academic Performances at University).

The 2009 Graduate Profile Report

The 2009 Graduate Profile Report is available in digital and also on paper (download the printed volume from the website www.almalaurea.it/universita/profilo/profilo2009/ under PDF Documentation).

The on-line version can be viewed at the Internet address www.almalaurea.it/universita/profilo. It includes relevant documents for all graduate cohorts, which can be identified by degree course type, university, faculty, degree subject grouping, degree-course grouping (for the post-reform graduates) and course type (both for pre-reform and post-reform graduates). It is also possible to view the profiles of the post-reform graduates on line, by making a distinction between “pure” and “hybrid” graduates (see next paragraph).

The Graduate Profile shows the data of cohorts including at least five graduates.

Post-reform “pure” and “hybrid” graduates

The distinction is kept between “pure”/“hybrid” post-reform graduates (first level or three year degrees, single-cycle specialist degrees, master’s or second level degrees). The “pure” graduates directly enrolled at a post-reform degree course, while the “hybrid” graduates completed a post-reform degree course with the credits earned during pre-reform study courses.

The distinction between “pure” and “hybrid” graduates is based on the following information.

First level graduates

Enrolment year, secondary-school leaving year and the replies of the graduates to the following questions of the questionnaire are taken into account.

- Did you change over from one system to another, or from a degree course to another? If so, did you enrol at a pre-reform or post-reform degree course?

- Did you already have a degree qualification, earned during a previous university experience (bachelor’s degree, graduation…)? If so, what type of course was it?

- Did you start and not complete university courses different than the one you are currently completing? If so, what type of course was it?

Single-cycle specialist degree holders

Year of enrolment.

Master’s degree holders

Year of graduation and replies given to the following questions of the questionnaire.

- What type of university course did you complete before enrolling at the master’s degree course you are currently attending?

- Did you have previous university experiences besides the current one? If so, what type of course did you attend?

- You gained overall 300 credits to complete your master’s degree. Did you earn part of those credits with a pre-reform (old system) university degree course?

Return rate of questionnaires

The overall number of graduates and the number of those who filled the questionnaire are reported in each sheet and can be viewed in the Profile. The overall return rate was 91.9% in 2009. A note will invite to be specially careful in the interpretation of the documentation gathered from the questionnaires, whenever the graduates who filled the questionnaire are less than 60% of the overall number.

The “not specified” type of reply, percentage values and absolute values

The Graduate Profile includes the percentage distribution of cohorts according to the different variables. For the sake of clarity, the percentage related to the “not specified” (or “not available”) type of reply are usually quite low and they have not been reported on the sheets. Consequently, summing up the visible percentages the result is less than 100.

In the printable version of the 2009 Profile (the actual book or a PDF version of the Profile to be downloaded from the Internet at www.almalaurea.it/universita/profilo/profilo2009/), you find that percentages lower than 3% or relating to the “not-specified”/”not-available” type of reply have not been reported in the charts.

Empty cells

When you find an empty cell in the table, which can be identified with the symbol “-”, it means that the corresponding number of graduates is null and void (in terms of percentage), or that the phenomenon has not valid cases (if the cell is supposed to show average values). Consequently, the percentage value “0.0” indicates that the phenomenon has been found, that some cases occurred, but with a percentage that is lower than 0.05, and they are represented with only one decimal figure, as in the other tables of the Report.

Reference to the notes

For the definition of the following variables, the Profiles refer to the methodological notes.

The average age at graduation is calculated not only on the basis of the actual age but also by taking into account birth and graduation dates. For the percentage distributions by age at graduation, the age is to be intended as fully achieved.
The figure indicating foreign citizens does not include the graduates coming from the Republic of San Marino.
As for the graduates’ social background, we have followed what by A. Cobalti e A. Schizzerotto worked out in their book (La mobilità sociale in Italia, Bologna, il Mulino, 1994). The social class is defined by comparing the socio-economic status of the graduate’s father and mother, and it corresponds to the highest of the two (principle of ‘dominance’). As a matter of fact, the socio-economic status can be defined as middle-class, clerical middle class, petty bourgeoisie and working class. The middle class is dominant over the other three, the working class is at the lowest level, while clerical middle class and petty bourgeoisie are substantially balanced. If one graduate’s parent belongs to the petty bourgeoisie and the other to the clerical middle class, the social class of the degree holder is that of the father (in a situation like the above described one, it would not be possible to choose between the two social classes on the basis of the principle of dominance).
The socio-economic status of each parent is a function of the last position in the profession, as illustrated in the following table.

last position in the profession	socio-economic status
• free lancers * • managers • entrepreneurs with at least 15 employees	middle-class
• employees with coordinating duty • white collars • middle managers	clerical middle class
• self-employed people • house staff • members of cooperatives • entrepreneurs with less than 15 employees	petty bourgeoisie
• workers, junior officers and similar • executive workers	working class

* Free lancers with a lower educational qualification than the secondary school-leaving certificate have been included in the self-employed people category.

The graduates whose mother (or father) is a house-keeper belong to the social class of the working parent (either father or mother).

- The high-school graduation grade (the average values are reported here) is calculated for qualifications earned in Italy and graded on a scale from 1 to 100, also for students who finished school before 1999 and where graded on a scale from 1 to 60.

- In the question about previous university experiences, master’s degree holders are asked to replay by mentioning the graduation certification that gave them access to the master’s degree course.

- The variable major motivations for choosing the type of degree course is a summary of the replies given to the two following questions.

When you decided to enrol at the university degree course you are about to complete now, which of the following motivations influenced you more?

Interest in the course curriculum (mainly cultural factors)

- Definitely yes

- More yes than no

- More no than yes

- Definitely not

Interest in the job opportunities the course provides for (mainly employment factors)

- Definitely yes

- More yes than no

- More no than yes

- Definitely not

The degree holders who chose their course being driven by both cultural and employment factors replied “Definitely yes” to both questions. The graduates who were motivated mainly by cultural factors replied “Definitely yes” only to the question about their interest in the course curricular teachings. Similarly, the graduates who were motivated mainly by employment factors replied “Definitely yes” only to the question about their interest in the job opportunities provided for by the course. Finally, the type of reply “neither these nor those” includes students who replied other than “Definitely yes” to both questions.

- They are to be considered degree holders with standard age at enrolment those who entered the university when they were 19. For instance, a student who was born in 1985 (or later) and enrolled at a first-level or a single-cycle degree course in 2004/05 is to be considered having the standard age at enrolment. For master’s degree courses, the standard age at enrolment has been set at 22 (it results form totally regular educational careers both in secondary school and at university).

- As for the individual examination grades, both 30/30 and 30/30 with distinction have the same value.

- The degree grade is expressed on a scale from 1 to 110 also for the pre-reform graduates of the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Bologna (where grades are on a scale from 1 to 100). And the highest grade, 110 with distinction, equals 113 for the purposes of calculating averages.

- Time-to-graduation is to be referred to courses completed in 2009, while for master’s degrees only the two final years are taken into consideration.

- The duration of the university studies of each degree holder is given by the time interval between the established date of November 5^th of the enrolment year and the graduation year. For master’s degree courses, the time interval is calculated between November 5^th of the enrolment year at the two-year final course and the graduation date.

- The delay in graduation of a degree holder is the exceeding time necessary to complete the course given its prescribed duration (for master’s degree courses, it is the exceeding time considered the two final years), and it takes into account the number of months and days passed between the completion of the university year (April 30^th) and the graduation date.

- The delay in graduation index is the ratio between graduation delay time and prescribed duration of the degree course.

- Student-workers are the degree holders who replied that they had a full time job for at least half of their university career either while they had and they did not have classes. Working students are those degree holders who had some work experiences during their university studies.

- The possible answers to the question “Would you enrol on the university again?” have been found depending on the type of course.

First-level degree holders, single-cycle and pre-reform specialist degree holders

If you could go back in time, would you enrol on university again?

yes, on the same degree course of the same University
yes, on a different degree course of the same University
yes, on the same degree course of another University
yes, but on a different degree course of another University
no, I would not enrol again at the university.

Master’s degree holders

If you could go back in time, would you enrol on university again?

yes, on the same degree course of the same University
yes, on a different degree course of the same University
yes, on the same degree course of another University
yes, but on a different degree course of another University
no, I would not enrol again at the university.

Other special classification patterns

By place of residence it is meant here:

Same province of the attended university;
Same province of the same region;
Different region;
Abroad.

To the end of the degree holders classification we took into account the building where classes are held rather than the University main building.

- As for the variable educational qualification of degree holders’ parents, the parent with the higher qualification was taken into account and a distinction was made between situations where both parents, or only one, is a graduate.

- Among degree holders who have at least a “good” knowledge of foreign languages, many of them replied that they have a “native speaker”, “very good” or “good” level of knowledge within a range of entries including also “fairly good”, “limited” and “no knowledge at all” (both in writing and speaking)

- Among degree holders who have at least a “good” IT skills, many of them replied that they have a “very good” or “good” skills within a range of entries including also “fairly good”, “limited” and “no skills at all”.

- The Min. Decree (MD) 270/04 reorganised the degree course groups, which had been introduced by the Min. Decree 509/99, and it also matched the new degree-course groups (MD 270) with the old ones (MD 509). The two types of postgraduate degrees were divided into “single-cycle specialist degree courses” and “master’s degrees”, and they were changed names. The post-reform 2009 graduates belong mostly (more than 97%) to MD 509 courses. In the Graduate Profile Report, the distinction between graduates under the MD 509 and MD 270 courses will not be taken into account.