A bimonthly publication of AQU Catalunya

71

March 2014

All of the public and private universities in Catalonia, through AQU Catalunya, will see the start in 2014 of the fifth study on the labour market outcomes of graduates (graduate destinations) from higher education institutions in Catalonia, based on a survey carried out once every three years (2001, 2005, 2008, 2011), the main objective of which is to compile significant information at degree programme level for the purposes of curriculum enhancement.

The survey asks about employment (employment/unemployment rate, the time taken by graduates to find their first job, ways of gaining employment, job environment, job sectors, etc.), job quality (if they are working in the same field as their university studies, job duties, contractual factors, job security, annual salary, job satisfaction, etc.) and satisfaction with their university studies (skills acquired, job usefulness, if they would take the same degree again, mobility, etc.).

There are now over 50,000 records from the four surveys already carried out, and Catalonia now has one of the most extensive, complete and representative databases in Europe.

New developments in this latest survey are that the survey population will be 50% larger than it was for the last survey in 2011, as now the survey includes Master's degree courses, and for the first time the internet is to used to collect data on international Master's and doctorate/PhD degree programmes (3,036 persones); the rest of the survey will be carried out by telephone.

The cohorts to be studied are: undergraduate (graduates who completed their studies in 2010, with the exception of Medicine, where the year of completion was 2007), Master's (included for the first time in this 2014 survey) graduates who completed their studies in 2010 and 2011), and doctorates/PhDs (who completed their studies in 2009 and 2010).

The reference population for the survey totals 51,743 people, with the anticipated sample being 27,848 people.