ALMALAUREA CONFERENCE 2009

The presentation of the 11th Survey on Graduates’ Profile occurs in a context in which the signs of a deep crisis and restructuring of the Italian economy still persist, although both phenomena are slowing down. Moreover, a complex phase of transformation of the academic system and of acquisition of a new role in the country is ongoing.

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 in 2001 with the University Reform. 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.

The degree course of the old university system are being progressively depleted. In 2008 the number of pre-reform graduates amounted to 13% of the total number of graduates. Moreover, the post-reform graduates are quite always "pure", which means that they completed their course of studies entirely and exclusively under the new university system. After the presentation of the most successful performances of those students who graduated in time, the rest of the statistic data in this Survey enable us to examine the characteristics of the training pathways which have become common in the meanwhile.

The Survey has been made possible by the increasing number of universities which have been taking part in AlmaLaurea during the last few years. These subscriptions to AlmaLaurea enabled us to obtain a wide, reliable and updated documentation which is particularly useful for the Ministry of Education, University and Research, the assessment agency to be created, the governing bodies of universities, the university evaluation units and also for the headteachers and the staff involved in the delicate task of guiding high school students to university.

Relevant characteristics

The over one hundred different variables enabled us to obtain an updated profile of the graduates who have their CV in the AlmaLaurea database and have graduated between 1st January and 31st December 2008. The 2009 edition of the Profile has the same structure of the previous years: university, disciplinary group, faculty, degree course, degree course grouping, kind of graduate (studying worker, working student, student). The Survey examines the characteristics of graduates and it focuses in particularly on the following variables:
 

• age at graduation and age at enrolment
• Single examination marks and degree mark
• degree completition time and duration of studies
• parents’ educational qualification
• social class
• high school diploma and obtained mark
• reasons for the choice of the degree course
• class attendance levels
• study experiences made abroad
• traineeship or internship
• time needed to write the degree thesis
• work experience made during studies
• academic experience evaluation
• workload sustainability
• foreign languages command
• IT skills
• intention to continue studies
• preferred job sector
• significant aspect of the preferred job

The meeting programme outlines the 5 subjects that will be examined thoroughly after the presentation of the General Report. The debate and the conclusions will be the a significant discussion opportunity for those who are responsible for the governance system and the stakeholders.