The most marketable degrees on the job market
Among the 2016 two-year master’s graduates interviewed five years after the title, there are strong differences between the various disciplinary groups. The employment rate is over 90% for graduates from the IT and ICT, Industrial and Information Engineering, Architecture and Civil Engineering groups and those from the Economic Group. Under 83% is the employment rate of graduates in education and training, art and design as well as literary-humanistic groups.
The differences between the various areas are even wider if we analyze the employment rate of single-cycle degrees: for the medical and pharmaceutical group it is 92.9% while it drops to 81.2% for the legal group.
As for salaries, those of two-year master’s degree graduates in industrial and information engineering and IT and ICT technologies are higher, respectively equal to 1,893 and 1,851 euros per month net. On the other hand, the salaries of graduates from the education and training, psychological and literary-humanistic groups are below 1,400 euros per month. For single-cycle master’s degrees, the highest salaries are received by graduates from the medical and pharmaceutical group (1,898 euros), while those from the education and training group are lower, which amounted to 1,404 euros per month.
Graduates promote the university experience
Other interesting data come from the 2022 report on the profile of graduates, which involved about 300 thousand 2021 graduates from 77 universities (out of a total of 80 enrolled in AlmaLaurea). For example, the fact that the decrease in the use of university facilities and services (computer stations -5.3 percentage points, equipment for educational activities, such as laboratories and practical activities -4.5 percentage points, library services -4 , 7 percentage points and the spaces dedicated to self-study -3.3 percentage points) recorded in 2021 compared to 2020 and due to the pandemic have not, however, affected the relative satisfaction, which has instead been growing in recent years. In general, 90.5% of graduates say they are overall satisfied with the university experience that has just ended. In 2011 it was 87.1 per cent. In particular, 88.8% of graduates are overall satisfied with the relationship with the teaching staff; 80.9% of graduates who have used it consider the classrooms to be adequate; 72.9% of graduates would choose the same course and the same university again (an increase compared to that observed in 2011, 68.9%).
Success in university studies
Despite the crisis, the average age at graduation improves and in 2021 it was 25.7 years (in 2011 it was 26.9 years). Just as regularity in studies is growing steadily and markedly, but in the last two years thanks to the extension of the closure of the academic year granted to students for the Covid-19 emergency. In 2011 38.9% of graduates completed their studies, in 2021 the percentage reaches 60.9%. The average graduation grade in 2021 was 103.5 out of 110 (in 2011 it was 102.9 out of 110).
Mobility for study purposes
Two-year master’s graduates are those most inclined to move geographically for study reasons, 38.9% obtained their degree in a different province and not adjacent to that of the upper secondary school diploma (compared to 25.4 % of first level graduates and 27.1% of single-cycle graduates). And the migrations are almost always from the South to the Center-North. 28.0% of young people in the South decide to graduate from universities in the Center and the North (16.1% in the North and 11.9% in the Center). Therefore, for study reasons, the South loses, net of the very few graduates from the Center-North who choose a southern university, over a quarter of the graduates in its territory. Human capital that often never returns.
Experiences in the course of university studies
The shadows don’t stop there. Due to the pandemic, the number of study experiences abroad recognized by the degree course decreased, involving only 8.5% of graduates in 2021, thus returning to levels below those of 2011 (percentage equal to 11 , 3% in 2020 and 8.9% in 2011).
Curricular internship experiences also suffered a setback after a period of augmentation. In 2021 the share of graduates who completed internships recognized by the degree course was 57.1%. In 2011 it was 55.3% and, after a few years of substantial stability, from 2015 there was a steady growth that lasted until 2019 (bringing this share to 59.9%), which was followed by the contraction in 2020 (-2 , 3 percentage points compared to 2019) and 2021 (-0.5 points compared to 2020).
Both experiences abroad and curricular internships increase the chances of finding work. All things being equal, those who have completed a curricular internship are 7.6% more likely to be employed one year after their qualification, while those who have completed a recognized period of study abroad have a 15.4% probability more.