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Butlletí

A bimonthly publication of AQU Catalunya

73

July 2014

EDITORIAL

Just released - the findings of the fifth survey on graduate labour market outcomes

Once every three years AQU Catalunya coordinates the launch and analysis of the survey on the labour market outcomes (destinations) of graduates from Catalan universities, a study that is funded by the public universities, through their boards of trustees, partner and affiliated institutions and AQU Catalunya. I need hardly stress the scope of the survey, with more than 25,000 graduates interviewed this year, and its timeliness given the major crisis in the country at the present time. Neither is it necessary for me in this editorial to talk about the proven methodology used in the survey nor its impact, which is widely publicised and important.


AQU NEWS

ARTICLES

  • The Catalan university system, a driver of differential employability
    The findings of the fifth survey of the labour market outcomes of graduates from Catalan universities were released on 9 July 2014. Studies on the destinations of graduate from Catalan universities are a consequence of the interest of the public universities in Catalonia, through their boards of trustees (consells socials), in the employment outcomes of their graduates. As a result of the scope and regularity of these studies, which are coordinated by AQU Catalunya, they are now used and referred to in international comparative studies. A survey has been carried out once every three years since 2001 to analyse the transition to the labour market of graduates in Catalonia who graduated three years prior to each survey. In 2014 17,337 graduates were interviewed (First and Second Cycle degrees – diplomatures and llicenciatures, including degrees in Engineering and Architecture), out of a population of 31,279 that graduated in 2010 (2007 in the case of Medicine), which accounts for more than half (55%) of the graduate cohort for that year. The sample error was 0.5%.
    Anna Prades Nebot - Project manager in AQU Catalunya
  • The transition into work of doctoral degree holders
    The survey on the transition into work (also referred to as destinations or labour market outcomes) of holders of doctoral degrees, which is carried out by AQU Catalunya once every three years, provides information on the situation in the labour market of doctoral degree holders three years after being awarded a doctoral degree from one of the different universities in Catalonia. A large number of studies analysing the employment situation of graduates have been carried out although very few have dealt with doctoral degree holders, which is probably due to the lack of available databases that are sufficiently representative of the population of doctoral degree holders. Corresponding data are now available however for 2008, 2011 and 2014, which can be used to identify trends in the main indicators for the labour market as regards doctoral degree holders and other characteristics connected with doctoral degrees.
    Sandra Nieto Viramontes - Technician of AQU Catalunya's Quality Assessment Department
 

OPINION

  • Doctoral degree in Industrial Engineering: from theory to practice

    Carles Estruch Tena
    Civil Engineer, MSc in Computational Mechanics and currently taking a doctorate degree in Industrial Engineering

    Following the release of the findings of the fifth survey of the labour market outcomes of graduates from Catalan universities carried out by AQU Catalunya, I'd like to express my opinion regarding this matter from the point of view of my experience following my studies at university. When I entered university, my ambition was to study Civil Engineering at what is now known as BarcelonaTech (Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya/UPC), basically because I found the content interesting and, at that time (2002), the job prospects with such a degree were very good. I then went on to take a Master's in Computational Mechanics at the University of Swansea (Wales) and BarcelonaTech/UPC. The panorama since then has changed greatly, as the survey shows, with a decrease in both permanent contracts and salaries.

 

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