Methodological notes

1.Data sources

The variables used come from the following sources:

• administrative data: these information come from the administrative archives of universities that are involved in the survey, with the only exception of the variable "residence". In this case the lacking administrative datum may be supplied by the information given in the AlmaLaurea questionnaire, in case it contains data regarding the residence. The variables that have been taken into consideration are: gender, date of birth, information related to the attended degree course, year of enrolment, graduation date and mark, duration of studies;

• Survey on graduates’ profile: it mainly regards the variable "pure/hybrids", which -as it will be further explained in paragraph 6- makes a distinction between post-reform graduates: those who completed their course of studies entirely and exclusively under the new system are defined as "pure" graduates, whereas those who achieved the degree completing a course of studies initiated under the former pre-reform system are defined as "hybrid" graduates. Information can be obtained by combining some administrative data with the answers given by graduates in the AlmaLaurea questionnaire which is has been submitted to them before graduation;

• Survey on graduates’ employment conditions: it includes all information related to the employment status of graduates at one, three and five years on from graduation. The statistic data collected 1 year on from graduation are only related to post-reform graduates; those collected 3 years on from graduation only concern both second-level degree holders and single-cycle second level degree holders, whereas the data collected 5 years on from graduation are only related to pre-reform graduates.

2. Survey methods

The 2010 survey on graduates’ employment status was carried out by using substantially the same survey technique that was successfully tested in the previous years, even though the last method applied is inevitably more and more complex than the previous ones. The 2010 survey has investigated a new cohort: in addition to the whole population (178,000) of post-reform graduates of 2009 (first-level degree, second-level degree, single-cycle second-level degree and Primary Schooling Sciences graduates) who have been interviewed one year on from graduation, the survey has been extended to all the 2007 second-level graduates (38,000), who have been interviewed three years on from graduation¹. Thanks to the large numbers involved, the survey provides information down to degree-course level. In this way, the information needs of the Ministry for Education, University and Research² as well as of universities, especially the smaller ones, are met.

A dual data collection method CAWI (Computer-Assisted Web Interview) plus CATI (Computer-Assisted Telephone Interview) was used also this year to cut costs and data collection time. Remarkable savings were achieved by many universities. In particular, all graduates having an e-mail address (amounting respectively to 90% of the 2009 graduates’ population and to 86% of the 2007 second-level graduates) have been contacted via e-mail and asked to answer to a questionnaire which has been entirely programmed by the AlmaLaurea Consortium and which can be found on the web site of AlmaLaurea itself. The survey procedure also included up to three e-mail reminders. Subsequently, all the graduates who had not answered to the on-line questionnaire –together with those who have no e-mail address at all-have been contacted by phone, so that the high response rates, that normally characterise the AlmaLaurea surveys, could be achieved. In order to guarantee the fundamental time gap between the achievement of the degree and the interview, the graduates of 2009 and 2007 have been contacted in two different periods: those who graduated in the period between January and June have been interviewed from April to June 2010, whereas from September and November have been contacted those who graduated in the period between July and December³.

The traditional survey on pre-reform graduates has kept the common structure unaltered. The survey has, therefore, involved all the graduates (about 29,000) of the summer session of 2005, who have been interviewed five years on from the achievement of the degree. For this cohort the survey has been carried out with the CATI method and it took place between September and November 2010⁴. As already happened with the previous survey, pre-reform graduates were not interviewed one year on from graduation. In addition to this, as for pre-reform graduates the newness of this year is that the survey also excluded the interviews made three years on from graduation. The reason for this is that this group includes the last students of a university system that underwent a thorough reform, and these graduates’ features are so peculiar as not to offer any food for thought.

As already mentioned, all available information is, therefore, divided into the two main categories: pre- and post-reform. The post-reform cohort can also be split into first-level, second-level, single-cycle second level and Primary Schooling Sciences graduates (the last being the only non-reformed degree course). This inevitably enhances the level of complexity of the analysis that can be carried out on data. As a result of the specific features of their university careers, 2005 single-cycle second level degree holders have been equalled to pre-reform graduates.

It should also been taken into account that in some cases the number of graduates involved in the survey do not exactly coincides with the figures reported in the statistics related to the graduates’ profile. This is mainly due to subsequent integrations or changes made on the databank after writing this report.

3. Universities involved in the survey

There are 54 universities taking part to the 13th survey. 48 of them are also involved in the survey focused on collecting data three years on from graduation and 40 of them in the one regarding the data collection carried out five years on from graduation.

Both second-level degree holders and single-cycle second level degree holders of 2007 have already been involved in the previous similar survey of 2008, in which they had been interviewed one year on from graduation. Pre-reform graduates of the 2005 summer session had already been contacted twice: in 2006 (one year on from graduation) and in 2008 (three years on from graduation).

On the basis of the aims of the tables elaborated for each university (i.e., guaranteeing to each university taking part in the Consortium the access to a set of data that in the case of post-reform graduates is so detailed that it even supplies information on the single degree courses), the data have not been subjected to a re-proportioning statistical procedure. This procedure is generally used for the data that are presented during the yearly AlmaLaurea meeting. In the latter case, the re-proportioning is fundamental to make sure to obtain representative estimates of the overall population of Italian graduates.

Comments on some cohorts which have not been investigated

The survey of 2009 on graduates’ employment conditions excluded the graduates who have earned two degrees during the reference periods, because there was the risk to interview them two times but with reference to different degrees. In particular, as for first- and second-level degree holders, only the second-level degree has been taken into consideration, whereas in case of graduates having two degrees of the same level, only the first one (i.e., in terms of graduation date) has been taken into account for the analysis. If a student earned a pre-reform and then a post-reform degree, the prominence has been given to the post-reform one (with the only exception of the first-level degrees achieved in 2007 and 2005, given to the merely experimental nature of those surveys).

It has also been preferred to exclude the graduates who have earned the academic degree on the basis of special conventions. This case mainly regards: the workers of the health sector whose professional experience has been acknowledged by the University of Chieti-Pescara, which awarded them a first-level degree in one of the health sectors' faculties; the members of the armed forces and police officers who have concluded the degree-course in Management and Organisational Sciences at the Tuscia University.

4. Availability of data

Available data can be consulted by making selections in each of the three sections composing the search engine: after having select the survey of interest on the basis of the survey year, the kind of degree course and the number of years on from graduation, you can select some sub cohorts of the graduate population. In this way you focus the analysis on a well defined cohort. In addition, you can compare several groups of graduates through an analysis based on a specific comparison variable.

Available variables for selecting the survey

You can select the survey of interest on the basis of these variables: survey year, years on from graduation (one, three and five) and type of degree course (first-level, second-level, single-cycle second level degree, pre-reform courses or Primary Schooling Sciences).

Available variables for selecting the cohort

The available variables for selection are: university, faculty, degree subject grouping, class of degree, degree course. In order to facilitate the consultation of the data, all available variables are displayed, but some of them become active only after having made a particular selection: for example, the variable "class of degree" can be displayed only after having selected a post-reform degree course.

Likewise also the variable "degree course", which only regards post-reform graduates, becomes active and can, therefore, be selected only after having made a further choice among universities and after having selected at least one variable among faculty, degree subject grouping and class of degree. This is determined by the fact that the variable uses the codes of the databank containing information on the supply of study opportunities: to each degree course activated in a given university (or sometimes even in a given city) is associated a univocal code, which do not allows aggregations of different universities. In some cases a degree course activated by a given university may change its identification code, although its name may remain the same. This may happen, for example, as a consequence of changes made to the subjects of the degree course or of a change of the degree course grouping in which the course is included and so on. In such cases the same courses are treated separately, since the codes they have are different. In order to facilitate the finding of such particular cases, next to the name of the course has been indicated the academic year up to which the course was still active (e.g. "up to the academic year…") or the academic year in which the course was started ("from the academic year …").

Available comparison variables

The available variables for comparison are: kind of degree course, university, faculty, degree subject grouping, class of degree, degree course, gender, pure/hybrids, employment condition at graduation and enrolment on a second-level degree. The last four variables can be selected only as comparison variables and not as variables for selection. In particular, "pure/hybrids" is available for all post-reform degrees (with the only exception of Primary Schooling Sciences), whereas "enrolment on a second-level degree" is available only for post-reform first-level degree holders. Moreover, for post-reform graduates the variable "degree course" identifies each degree course activated in a given university (or even in a given city). Therefore, you cannot compare different universities, since every degree course is associated to a univocal code.

To conclude, a further comment on both second-level and single-cycle second level degree holders should be done. It rarely happens that no graduates at all result from a comparison based on the years on from graduation. A rare example is the case of the Faculty of Welfare Sciences of the University of Molise: only 22 second-level graduates in 2009 and no graduates at all in 2007. In this case all relevant elaborations have not been reported.

Variables available only for some cohorts

Some information are available only for some degree courses. In detail they regard:

• all the questions of the 2nd section of the tables ("Attendance of a 2nd level degree course"),which are available only for first-level graduates (see 6, 7);

• the participation to training activities like PhD and postgraduate school is obviously available only for pre-reform graduates, second-level degree and single-cycle second level degree holders (see 6);

• "employment and training opportunities" is available only for first-level graduates (see 6)

• the answers on the "employment conditions at graduation" have been collected through different methods for second-level graduates (see 6);

• "Usefulness of the 2nd level degree course for the current job" is available only for second-level graduates.

In this document there are further information on the majority of the variables. These explanations regard both how the questionnaires were submitted and the answer modalities. Consult the relative paragraphs for further information.

5. Conventions and further notes

Lacking data and no-answers

The administrative data are always complete, with the only exception of the variable "graduation mark" (1 lacking datum regarding the cohort of 2005 pre-reform graduates).

The variable pure/hybrid (whose definition has been reported in the section 6) is partly based on data collected through the questionnaires supplied to graduates before graduation. For this reason the information available do not regard all graduates but only a part of them, namely the remarkable percentage who answered to the questionnaire. More specifically, this information is not available for 9.3% of first-level graduates, 9.9% of 2009 second-level graduates and 13.2% of the 2007 ones, 10.1% of 2009 single-cycle second level degree holders and 14.4% of those of 2007.

As for the survey on graduates’ employment conditions, the only variable for which a remarkable share of "no-answers" is found (i.e., some people decided to take part to the survey but not to answer to a specific question) is- as it could be expected- the "Average monthly net earnings"⁵. For all the other variables that have been analysed the no-answers rate is lower.

In order to facilitate the reading and the comprehension of the tables, all no-answers have been omitted: for this reason the sum of the percentages may be in some cases lower than 100.

A share of lacking data is found for the comparison variables: employment conditions at graduation, pure/hybrids and enrolment on a second-level degree. To facilitate the comprehension of the tables, this share has never been reported, although it is included in the relevant total, i.e. "selected cohort".

Rounded-off numbers

Percentages have been approximated to the first decimal place: because of this rounding off of the figures, the sum of percentages is sometimes different from 100. The only exceptions to this are the cases in which there are "no-answers" (see 5).

Conventional signs

The hyphen "-" is used in the tables when a phenomenon has been analysed, but no cases of it have occurred. The percentage value 0.0 indicates that the phenomenon has been found and that some cases occurred, but with a percentage that is lower than 0.05.

Finally, the abbreviation "n.p." (that is the Italian for "not available; n/a") indicates that the elaboration has not been reported, since the data didn't actually concern the analysed cohort (e.g., the variable "type of work activity" would not be available if no graduate of the analysed cohort was employed; the situation would be the same for "characteristics of the second-level degree course", if no first-level graduate had enrolled on a second-level degree).

The symbol "*" indicates that statistics have not been calculated, since they would have referred to a very small cohort (less than 5 units; see 5)

Useful information for a correct interpretation of the results

As already stated before, the tables give a detailed report of all cohorts having at least 5 graduates. Therefore, if the relevant group is below 5 units (see for example the table concerning the first-level graduates of the faculty of Pharmacology of the University of Chieti and Pescara) in this case only the number of graduates, the number of interviewees and the response rate concerning the survey on the employment conditions are reported. All the other statistics are unreported and percentages are replaced by the "*" symbol.

While analysing the results it is important to keep into account the number of people in each cohort: if the number of graduates to be analysed is low, then you should interpret the results with all the required caution.

Moreover, you should also take into consideration with all the required caution some cohorts of graduates that are characterised by particular educational and training backgrounds. There are some degree courses which stand out among all the others because of their importance and peculiarity. In these courses (pre-reform and single-cycle second level ones) a huge number of graduates take part to postgraduate training activities and, as a consequence, they inevitably retard their access to the labour market. The most common examples are Medicine and Law. However, it’s also important to take into consideration other variables, like the employment condition at graduation, or, as for first-level graduates, the choice to combine study and work. Both elements significantly influence other factors, like employment opportunities and the characteristics of the job held. As for the first variable, it should not be forgotten that those who worked at the time of graduation generally experience an easier access to the labour market, since they already have the necessary experience for getting a job, even at better conditions. Obviously, those who stay in the job they held before graduation (and in particular, at one year on from graduation) have even better conditions as for employment security and earnings. Also the second factor that has been highlighted (that is the choice of first-level graduates to combine study and work) has a great influence on the characteristics of the job that has been held, which is generally a temporary or a part-time job and whose wages are low. Both variables can be taken into consideration as comparison variables in the tables, so that immediate comparisons can be done between different cohorts.

Comments on some faculties

If in a given university a faculty has its courses in different seats, the presentation of data in the tables reflects this subdivision, so that the results about the employment status of graduates can be distinguished for each seat. This subdivision is done even more so when within a single university there are faculties officially distributed among different seats.

It’s important to stress that some faculties can be found in just one university. In this case, the interpretation of the results of the overall group of investigated universities needs all the required caution.

Meaning of the word "degree" in the available elaborations

In order to facilitate the consultation of the tables the Consortium AlmaLaurea decided to use the term "degree" without any other more specific information related to the kind of degree that had been analysed (first-level, second-level etc). The only exception are the elaborations that are available for only one kind of degree course. In this case the kind of degree is specified, so that the analysed cohort can be better identified.

6. Definitions and indices

Pure/hybrid post-reform graduates

Post-reform graduates (first-level, second-level or single-cycle second-level degree holders) that are defined as "pure" are those who have been enrolled on a post-reform degree course since the beginning; i.e., they have begun and completed their course of studies entirely and exclusively under the new system. "Hybrid" graduates are those who achieved a post-reform degree by completing a course of studies initiated under the former system.

The procedure that is used to identify pure/hybrid graduates is based on the following information. As for first-level graduates, the following factors are considered: enrolment year, graduation year and the answers given by graduates to the following questions that are part of the questionnaire submitted to them before graduation:

• Have you achieved your degree completing a course of studies initiated under the previous system or have you changed your degree course? If yes, were you in the pre-reform or in the post-reform system at the time when you made these changes?

• Have you achieved another academic qualification (university diploma, graduation) before enrolling on the course that you are now completing? If yes, what kind of course have you attended?

• Have you started any other academic course different from the current one, but without completing it? If yes, what kind of course have you attended?

As for second-level graduates, the following factors are considered: the year of the completion of studies and the answers given by graduates to the following questions that are part of the questionnaire submitted to them before graduation:

• What kind of degree course have you achieved before enrolling on the second-level degree course that you are now completing?

• In addition to the above mentioned course, have you made any other academic experience? If yes, what kind of course have you attended?

• You earned 300 training credits for your second-level degree course. Have you obtained part of these credits within a pre-reform system?

Finally, as for single-cycle second level degree holders the factor that is taken into consideration is the enrolment year.

In the tables with the disaggregation between pure/hybrids the data on the selected graduates population also includes a share of interviewees whose academic studies cannot be reconstructed (and therefore the pure or hybrid variable they belong to cannot be identified too) without any information relating to the previous academic experiences.

Enrolment on a second-level degree course

As for first-level graduates it should be taken into account that:

• "is currently enrolled in a 2nd level degree course" includes not only the first-level degree holders who have enrolled on a second-level degree, but also the 203 graduates who have declared to have enrolled on a 4-year degree course envisaged under the previous system (i.e., the degree course in Primary Schooling Sciences, which has not been reformed)⁶;

• "has been enrolled in a 1st/2nd level degree course, but is not enrolled anymore": in addition to those who gave up studying within the first year of enrolment, it also includes the graduates who successfully completed the new course of studies they had undertaken after graduating in 2009.

Postgraduate training

For obvious reasons related to the training courses that can be attended after the achievement of the first-level degree, in the elaborations related to post-reform first-level degree holders are not included activities like "PhD" and "second-level master’s degree"⁷. As a consequence, it should be taken into account that the variable "has taken part to at least one training activity" is calculated in a different way for first-level graduates. In addition, there are also other factors which contribute to the statistics of this variable, such as the answers related to the participation to the national civilian service. This activity is not reported in the tables, but it has been observed as for the whole interviewed population.

Employment and further training conditions of first-level graduates

The employment and further training condition of first-level graduates has been presented through two different elaborations: in addition to the traditional elaboration having three modalities ("is working", "doesn't work and doesn't look for a job" and "doesn't work, but looks for a job"), which is useful to make comparisons with other kinds of analysed degree, also another subdivision into five modalities has been reported ("works and is not attending a 2nd level degree course", "works and is attending a 2nd level degree course", "doesn't work and is attending a 2nd level degree course", "doesn't work, is not attending a 2nd level degree course and is not looking for a job" and "doesn't work, is not attending a 2nd level degree course but is looking for a job"). In this way prominence is given to the employment and training experiences made by graduates after the completion of studies.

The share of employed graduates is obtained from the sum of those who work and those who both work and are also enrolled on a second-level degree course. Likewise, the total number of those who enrolled on a second-level degree course has been obtained by summing the number of those who combine study and work and the number of those who just study.

Employment condition and employment rate

Similarly to the ISTAT (Italian Board of Statistics) survey on the employment condition of graduates, the interviewees who stated that they were carrying out a paid work activity are considered to be in employment, excluding from this category all those under training (traineeships, apprenticeships, PhD and schools of postgraduate studies, etc.). It can be deduced from this definition that having an income is a necessary but not sufficient condition to define a graduate as employed.

The "employment rate" results from the ratio between employed graduates and the interviewees and it is calculated in accordance with the ISTAT definition within the continuous survey on workforce. According to this "less restrictive" definition, are defined as employed those who stated that they were carrying out a paid activity. All those under training are included in this category provided that they are paid⁸.

Unemployment rate

Unemployment rate has been calculated in accordance with the ISTAT definition within the continuous survey on workforce.

Unemployment rate results from the ratio between the number of those seeking employment and the labour force. Employment-seeking people, i.e. the unemployed, are all those who are not in employment and who state that they are in search of a job and that they have performed an "active" job-seeking action in the 30 days prior to the interview and are immediately prepared (within two weeks’ time) to take up a job, if offered. To these ones should be added those who stated that they have already found a job, which they will nevertheless take up in the future, but who declared that they are prepared to accept a job within two weeks, should this be offered. By doing this, they would therefore anticipate the beginning of the work activity.

The labour force results from the sum of employment-seeking people and those holding jobs (according to the ISTAT definition within the continuous survey on workforce).

Percentage of graduates who is not working, is not looking for a job, but is attending a degree course or is doing a training activity

In the tables are supplied all necessary information related to the percentage of graduates who do not work and do not look for a job, because they continue studies (in another degree course or any internship/apprenticeship that is compulsory to enter the profession). The aim of this is to give to the universities taking part to the Consortium all useful information for meeting the "transparency requirements", as regulated by the article No. 2 of the already mentioned Ministerial Decree (D.M.) No. 544 of the 31st October 2007 and by the Directoral Decree No. 61 of the 10th June 2008 No 61 (in particular, see the section "Information on degree courses, subjects and other training activities"). In particular, the adopted definition includes those who are carrying out a traineeship or a training practice, PhD courses, specialisation schools, Italian first-level/second-level master's degree courses and- as for first-level graduates- any other degree courses, including higher artistic, musical and dancing training: Fine Arts Academy, Silvio d'Amico National Academy of Dramatic Arts, ISCR (Higher Institute for the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property), ISIA (Higher Institute for Artistic Industries) and conservatories.

Employment condition at graduation

Information on the employment condition at graduation are available for all the observed kinds of degrees. This is made possible by the distinction made between those who continue in the job undertaken before graduation, those who do not continue in the job undertaken before graduation and those who have started to work later. Moreover, as for second-level graduates, it is possible to isolate those who have started to work even before enrolling on a second-level degree course from those who have found a job while attending the second-level degree course.

Effectiveness of the degree within the current job

The effectiveness of the degree, which synthesizes two important aspects related to the usefulness and exploitability of the degree on the labour market, derives from the combination of questions concerning the use of the skills acquired at university and the necessity (both formal and substantial) of the academic qualification for the job activity. According to the interpretation offered in the scheme below, you can distinguish five levels of effectiveness:

• "very effective", for those holding jobs where the degree is required by law or de facto necessary, and where skills acquired at university are used extensively;

• "effective", for those holding jobs where the degree is not required by law but is however useful and where acquired skilled are widely used, or where the qualification is required by law and skills are used to a lesser extent;

• "fairly effective", for those in jobs where the degree is not required by law but is de facto necessary or useful and where the skills acquired at university are used only to some extent;

• "not very effective", for those in jobs where the degree is neither required by law nor useful to any extent whatsoever and where the skills acquired are used to a lesser extent, or where the qualification is not required by the law but it is useful and the acquired skills are not used at all;

• "ineffective", for those holding jobs where the degree is not required by law nor useful in any way and where the acquired skills are not used at all.

This classification excludes no-answers and also some "anomalous" characteristics which cannot be included in one of the above mentioned categories: in the survey carried out one year on from graduation the modality "unclassifiable" corresponds to 2.2% of the employees (without any particular differences between the kinds of degree courses, except for a slight subrepresentation in the cohort of the single-cycle second level degree holders, in which it amounts to 1.6%); then in the survey carried out three years on from graduation it amounts to 2.5% (1.9% as for single-cycle second level degree courses) and finally in the survey made five years on from graduation it amounts to 2.5%.

Table 1 -Definition of the effectiveness of the degree

Use of skills acquired at university	Usefulness of the degree
	Required by law	Necessary	Useful	Not required by law nor useful	No answers given
High	ME	ME	E	NC	NC
Low	E	AE	AE	PE	NC
None	NC	NC	PE	NE	NC
No answers given	NC	NC	NC	NC	NC

ME	Very effective	E	Effective	AE	Fairly effective
PE	Not very effective	NE	Ineffective	NC	Unclassifiable

7. Comments on some variables and relative aggregation

Age at graduation

The average age at graduation is calculated on the basis of the graduates’ age (considered as an entire number), of the date of birth and of the graduation date.

Graduation mark

The graduation mark is here expressed on a scale of 110/110 also for the pre-reform students of the Faculty of Engineering of Bologna, although in this faculty the graduation mark is expressed on a scale of 100/100. For calculating the average marks, it has been established that the mark 110/110 with honour corresponds to 113/110. For these reasons, you can find some cases of average graduation mark being higher than 110.

Duration of studies

It is the period between the 5th November (a date that is conventionally considered the beginning of the courses) of the year of registration and the graduation date. For the second-level degree courses we consider the period between the 5^th November (of the same year of registration to the above mentioned second-level degree course) and the graduation date.

Reasons for not enrolling on another degree course

It should be taken into account that:

• "working reasons" includes the answers given by graduates who work / had already been working at the time of graduation or who have subsequently found a job which determined their decision to do not register in the second-level degree or who decided to enter immediately the labour market.

• "other reasons" includes the following options: "the degree course applied selective entry and the student had not been admitted", "the student had problems with the attribution of educational credits", "other reasons".

Reasons for enrolling in a second-level degree course

This data processing is referred to all the students who enrolled on a second-level degree course or on the non-reformed degree course of Primary Schooling Sciences after having earned a first-level degree. It does not take into account the fact that the students may be still enrolled or not one year on from degree completion.

University and faculty of enrolment

To evaluate the characteristics of the second-level degree chosen by first-level graduates, the Consortium took into consideration the university and the faculty of enrolment on the second-level degree course, including the non-reformed course of Primary Schooling Sciences. It is, however, important to stress that in a number of cases, the change of university automatically leads to the change of faculty too, because of the different breakdown of training supply of each university. In such cases, the change was merely formal. Therefore, for a correct interpretation, the information related to the nature of the second-level degree and to the first-level degree should be taken into consideration.

Time-to-entry into the labour market

The time-to-entry into the labour market is calculated just for the graduates who have started the work activity that they currently hold after the achievement of the academic qualification. Therefore, are excluded all the graduates who continue in the job held before completion of the studies. The time elapsed between graduation and the beginning of the search for employment and also the time elapsed between the beginning of the search for employment and the finding of the first job were calculated by excluding those stating that they haven't ever sought employment. In some rare case it may happen that all the graduates continue with the job they had started before the study completion or that they state that they have never looked for a job. In such cases the abbreviation "n.p." (in English "not available; n/a") is used.

Type of work activity

It should be taken into account that:

• "Collaboration" includes project-based contracts, coordinated ongoing collaboration contracts, ad-hoc contracts, supply-of-personal-service contracts and, in particularly, the supply of professional guidance.

• "Other kinds of flexible contracts" includes: "socially useful" employment contract and contracts "of public usefulness", jobs made available under a special "professional insertion plan", interim work contracts, "associate" employment contracts, job on call, shared job and "occasional, accessory" work contracts.

• "Total for permanent job" represents the sum of the modalities "self employed" and "permanent contract".

• "Total for flexible contracts" represents the sum of the following modalities: "fixed-term employment contract", "collaboration/consulting", "other flexible contract".

Economic and business sector of activity

The 22 branches of activity have been aggregated on the basis of the analogy that exists between the sectors and the percentage of answers of each option.

It should be emphasized that:

• the modality "building industry" also includes the "construction, planning, installation and maintenance of buildings and plants".

• the modality "chemistry/energy" also includes "petrochemistry, gas, water and mining";

• "manufacturing industry" also includes the following modalities: "press and publishing", "electronics and electrotechnics", "manufacturing" (i.e., food production, tobaccos, textile, clothing, leather, footwear, wood, furnitures, paper, gum and plastic).

• "commerce" also includes "hotels and other public commercial concerns".

• "transport, advertising and communications" includes the following modalities: "postal service, transport, travels" and "advertising, communications and telecommunications".

• "consulting" also includes the following modalities: "legal advice, administrative advice, accountancy" and " other professional and guidance activities"

• "other services" includes the modalities "cultural and recreational services and sports", "other social and personal services" and "other branch".

Net monthly earnings

As for the question on net monthly earnings, there are several earning brackets in Euros: "up to €250", "251-500", "501-750", "751-1,000", "1,001-1,250", "1,251-1,500", "1,501-1,750", "1,751-2,000", "2,001-2,250", "2,251-2,500", "2,501-2,750", "2,751-3,000", "over €3,000". The average has been calculated by excluding no-answers and by using the central value of the earning bracket (except the first one, i.e. 200, and the last one, i.e. 3,250). Sometimes no graduate answers to the question. In such cases the abbreviation "n.p." (in English "not available; n/a") is used.

Kind of improvement observed in the job

This data processing only regards those graduates who continue in the job held before graduation. The percentages related to the various aspects in which graduates have observed any kind of improvement refer obviously only to the share of employed graduates who have experienced a job enhancement.

Reasons for not looking for a job

It should be taken into account that "waiting to be contacted by the employer" also includes in a broad sense those who are waiting to work on a self-employment basis.

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