On December 1st the Conference "Tracking Graduates and their mobility: comparing experiences in the international framework" has been held in Bologna. The event was organized by AlmaLaurea and the University of Bologna.
The Conference was an opportunity for promoting and supporting the Council Recommendations on tracking graduates, taking into consideration the challenges faced by graduates on the labour market. The Conference, beyond providing an added value in highlighting the benefìts of analysing the graduates' outcomes and their labour market, represented an exploratory occasion for identification of good practices on tracking mobile graduates and the relative benefits as well. Moreover, the role of European Universities alliances was discussed, also considering the potential interaction with European graduate tracking initiatives.
Study experience abroad during academic experience
The latest AlmaLaurea 2022 graduates survey shows that 8.3% of graduates made study experience abroad recognized by their university study programme. This experience definitely is part of Erasmus programme. The most frequent destination country is Spain, chosen by 26.7% of those interested, followed by France (13.3%), Germany (10.1%) and Portugal (5.3%). United Kingdom is the first place among the destination countries (4.0%), in non-European mobility experiences, followed by the USA (1.5%) and China (1.0%).
The study experiences abroad, recognized by the degree study programme, increase with the progression of the study levels and frequent mainly among students of the linguistic group (18.4%), while in all other disciplinary groups, the mobility concerns at most 13.0% of graduates.
Employment outcomes
As for employment outcomes, AlmaLaurea's surveys have been confirming for years that international mobility experiences for study purposes represent a “tramp card”on the job market. Under equal circumstances, those who have completed a period of study abroad recognized by their degree programme are 12.3% more likely to enter in the labour market than those who have never completed an experience abroad.
One year from graduation those working abroad represent 3.4% of bachelor’s graduates and 5.0% of master’s graduates. Five years from graduation, those working abroad represent 6.2% of bachelor’s graduates and 5.7% of master’s graduates.
Gender Gap
Looking at the gender indicator, we find a gap to the detriment of women: among bachelor’s graduates, the share of men who work abroad in 2022 is equal to 3.7%, compared to 3.2% of women (+0.5 percentage points); this gap increases considering master’s level graduates, among whom 5.8% of men are working abroad, compared to 4.4% among women (+1.4 percentage points).
Mobility calls for mobility
As for the relationship between participation in international mobility programs during studies and the propensity for international careers, we see that mobility calls for mobility: those who have had study experience abroad recognized by their study programme are more frequently employed abroad, already one year after obtaining the academic qualification, compared to those who have not had this experience. In fact, among bachelor’s graduates, the share of those working abroad rises to 17.8% for those who have carried out a period of study abroad recognized by their study programme, while among master’s graduates represents 13.5%, while the overall share of those working abroad are 3.4% and 5.0%, as we have already seen). Furthermore, those who have experienced mobility abroad for study reasons tend to choose the same country for job search.
Foreign graduates
AlmaLaurea data, in line with the trends detected by the Ministry of University and Research (MUR), shows that in 2022 foreign graduates represents 4.3% of the total graduates population (in 2012 it was 3.0%). However, among them, those who obtained their high school diploma abroad and then came to Italy to follow university studies are just over half and represents 2.7% of all graduates.
The most represented country is China (9.8%), followed by India (8.1%), Iran (7.6%), Turkey (4.2%), Russia (4.0%), Albania (3.8%) and Cameroon (3.5%).
Family background effects
We observed a phenomenon that involves, transversally, the outgoing to incoming dimensions. Students who are coming from more advantaged family backgrounds are those that are more likely to have study experiences abroad. The value is more than doubles if we look at the shares of those with non-graduate parents and those with both parents with an academic background, and the value goes from around 6% to around 14%.
On the other side, looking to the incoming students, we observe a similar incidence of family background: the majority of foreign citizens graduates in Italy who obtained their secondary-school diploma abroad has both parents with an academic background 30.6% (11.8% for Italian citizens graduates).