ALMALAUREA CONFERENCE 2011

The training and the employment of the younger generations’ human capital are both a responsibility and at the same time an opportunity for growth. This commitment gives sense to the international policy agenda that calls for the adoption of stress test in order to check the capability of the EU treaties to withstand both the global economic crisis, whose effects are still persisting, the geo-political crisis, showing its complexity after the "Arab Spring", and the energy crisis, which increases uncertainty for the future.

In this context, the higher education systems in Europe and in the Mediterranean maintain and enhance their strategic role in supporting a sustainable development based on international cooperation. One of the potential and operational answer that the university systems can offer in response to a so deep crisis characterized by so many uncertainties, although not unique given the potentialities of such systems, is quality improvement. This goal can be achieved through the evaluation, in order for the university systems to become more integrated at both international and local level. While the effects of a deep crisis and of restructuring of the Italian economy are still in course, although showing a slowdown, and in a period of complex transformation of the university system and of its repositioning in the Country, this year the issue of the quality in training and of the assessment of the Italian university system is the focus of the AlmaLaurea National Conference.

The results of the XIII ALMALAUREA Survey on Graduates’ Profile will be presented. It concerns the 190.000 graduates who concluded their studies in 2010 in one of the 57 universities joining the AlmaLaurea Inter-University Consortium (6 more than in the previous survey). 93 percent of them have concluded one of degree courses started - since 2001 - with the university reform. Among these about 110.000 graduates have obtained a 1st level degree whereas over 70.000 of them have obtained a 2nd level degree. Among these 15.000 have obtained a single cycle master’ degree. The transition from the old to the new university system is already concluded. In fact, the 2010 pre-reform graduates are only 6 percent of the total. In addition, the post-reform graduates are almost all "pure" graduates, that is graduates who completed their course of studies entirely and exclusively under the new system. At conclusion of the phase characterized by the inevitably excellent performance of the first graduates, this year's Survey gives significant evidence of the characteristics of the different academic studies carried out that, in the meantime, have become more stable.

The survey has been conducted thanks to the joining of a growing number of universities to AlmaLaurea, which have allowed to prepare a comprehensive, reliable, timely and useful documentation, particularly helpful to MiUR, ANVUR, governing bodies of universities, evaluation unit, but also to school administrators and personnel engaged in the delicate work of post secondary education guidance.

The availability of information on more than one hundred different variables allowed to obtain an updated profile of graduates who completed their studies between the 1st of January and December 31, 2010. The 2011 edition of the Survey keeps the aggregation used in previous years: university, group discipline, faculty, course/degree class, gender and type of degree (worker-student, student-worker, student-student).

As in previous events, Italian and foreign scholars are expected to participate. The program provides, after the presentation of the XIII AlmaLaurea Survey, the deepening of five issues of particular interest: Students’ Entry Characteristics and Academic Success, Incoming Student Quality and Academic Performance: The Case of Engineering Graduates, Satisfaction with the University Experience, Educational Guidance and Life Skills, Gender and University Choice. Following a contribution on a topic of particular relevance: Towards an Euro-Mediterranean Area of Higher Education. At the end of the day's work, the Roundtable and the Conclusions will be an opportunity for exchange of ideas and open discussion between the responsible for the governance of the university system and stakeholders on the theme: Quality and internationalization of the university system.