89

April 2018

EDITORIAL

Graduate satisfaction with Master's programmes

Martí Casadesús Fa - Director

Between 2014 and 2017 AQU Catalunya carried out the accreditation of 350 master's degree programmes, or approximately 70% of the provision of all master's degrees in Catalonia. The outcome of assessment was favourable in around 70% of this total, of which 22% were rated as excellent while 8% received conditional accreditation (with prescriptions). The results are available at web EUC. In general terms, it can be affirmed that, in the majority of cases, Catalan universities provide society with Master's degree programmes that are of good quality.

During the first quarter of 2017, within the context of the sixth survey of graduate employment outcomes, AQU Catalunya also interviewed around 9,000 Master's graduates who had completed their degree studies at universities in Catalonia in the 2011-12 and 2012-13 academic years, or around 45% of the reference population.

This figure is significant for two reasons: on the one hand, it illustrates the high level of commitment and willingness of graduates to contribute to the improvement and enhancement of the degree programmes that they took and, on the other, for being one of the most representative studies in the world on the employment outcomes and destinations of Master's graduates.

The data analysed in Access to the labour market for graduates of Master's degrees from Catalan Universities, released in this e-newsletter, are very reliable and show, broadly speaking, that the employment rate of Master's graduates is higher than that of graduates of bachelor's programmes and lower than that of doctoral degree/PhD holders; that the conditions of employment of master's graduates are also better than those of graduates of bachelor's programmes, but not so good as those that of doctoral degree/PhD holders; and that the level of satisfaction with the Master's degree taken (if a graduate would retake the same Master's programme) has decreased in comparison with 2014 and is also clearly lower than bachelor's and doctoral degree/PhD graduates.

  Bachelor's Master's Doctorate/PhD
Employment rate 89% 91% 94%
Full-time job 77% 81% 87%
€2,000+ a month 43% 54% 77%
Graduate-level job responsibilities 82% 91% 95%
Would retake the same Master's programme 71% 65% 80%

The findings concerning the satisfaction of master's graduates in Catalonia is an aspect that should concern everyone involved, particularly the university authorities and coordinators of programmes for which the response is less positive. In addition, there is also a high level of variability of these studies, with the continuous introduction of new master's programmes, their revalidation (repeat ex-ante accreditation) and discontinuity, many due to the lack of demand.

As I pointed out at the beginning, the universities in Catalonia provide Master's degree programmes of high quality, although graduates themselves aren't sufficiently satisfied. The reasons for this need to be analysed, with the cost (economic, personal, etc.) of investing in taking a master's degree and the benefit gained very likely having a lot to do with it.

In the case of the benefit gained, the survey also gives an idea of the basic picture. More specifically, we know what impact a master's degree had on the professional career of graduates in 2017: around half of all master's graduates had higher salaries and/or improved their employment status; almost half (40%) had either a better or a longer contract; and around a third (28%) had been promoted to better positions.

In conclusion, enormous efforts have been made in the university system in Catalonia to adapt and bring degree courses and programmes in line with the European Higher Education Area. In 2018 it will be four years that the full life cycle of programmes, namely, ex-ante accreditation, monitoring, modification and accreditation, has been running, once every four years in the case of master's degrees and once every six years for bachelor's and doctoral degrees.

Given the perspective and the data available to us at the present time, we need to think calmly yet seriously and in depth about how to improve the satisfaction of graduates with the master's degrees they take.

Martí Casadesús Fa

Director

ENQA EQAR ISO

Generalitat de Catalunya

c/. dels Vergós, 36-42. 08017 Barcelona. Tel.: +34 93 268 89 50

© 2017 AQU Catalunya - Legal number B-21.910-2008