Andrea Cammelli

Mixed Outcomes of the Bologna Process in Italy

A country study in the framework of a comparative analysis – in this case on issues of mobility and employability of Bachelor graduates in Italy in comparison to other European countries – runs the risk of misunderstandings if the characteristics of the individual countries are not sufficiently taken into account. Therefore, we must stress two stylized facts on the Italian setting.

Foreign students in Italy

The paper presents an analysis of the trends in and links between policies, practices and foreign student enrolment in Italian universities. While the number of foreign students has increased in Italy over the post-war period, the trend and composition of the flow have been affected by changes in government policies and institutional practices regarding foreign students as well as developments in countries sending large numbers of foreign students to Italy. Greek students continue to account for a large proportion of the foreign student population in Italy, but there has been a marked trend toward a reduction in the share of students from developing countries. Over time, foreign student enrolments have become more evenly distributed among faculties and institutions and by gender. Preliminary analyses of degree completion suggest that foreign students progress in their studies at rates slightly lower than Italian students.

Graduates’ employment and employability after the “Bologna Process” reform. Evidence from the Italian experience and methodological issues

In a phase of depression and systemic crisis investments are essential assets in organizing the recovery, and the more so when innovation is relevant. This is why universities, companies, households and graduates implement strategies for overcoming the present crisis, leading to structural changes and competition both at the local and international level. In this framework, tracer studies on graduates transition to the labour markets provides fundamental insights and information not only to the organizations responsible for their training, but also to the economic system as a whole. Moreover, any such study is all the more useful when it can draw upon reliable and up-to-date information. This paper emphasizes three main points. First we present the results achieved by the AL model in tracing the transition path of graduates from the time they enrolled at the university until a few years after earning the degree. The survey is carried out every year by the AL and makes it possible to analyze the most recent labour market trends through the scrutiny of the career opportunities available for the graduates after 1, 3 and 5 years on from graduation. More specifically, we will present the results of the 2008 survey. This survey involved also all first and second level graduates from the 2007 vintage. Second, we examine the revision in our survey method, adopted in order to face the need to monitor a much higher number of post-reform graduates (more than 140 thousand overall) and the call of the Ministry and the universities to keep the information as much detailed as possible in assessing the employment outcomes for each single degree course, without losing feasibility in terms of costs and data collection time. In fact, we resorted to a mixed method: the computer assisted web interviewing (CAWI) and the computer assisted telephone interviewing (CATI). This is why it became necessary to measure and assess the effect of this approach on the answers given by interviewed graduates. In third place, we outline the results of some preliminary experiments carried on in order to allow for specific and recurrent comparisons between the results achieved with the AL model and other similar models dealing with the employment conditions of Italian graduates.

Le déclin des entrées à l'Université italienne d'ici 2008.

Cammelli (Andrea), di Francia (Angelo), Guerriero (Angelo). - La disminucion de en- tradas en la universidad italiana hasta el ano 2008 Por primera vez despues de la union de Italia (1861) los usuarios potenciales de la universidad estan en rapido descenso. Este fenomeno se explica por la disminucion de la natalidad que se inicio en Italia en los aňos sesenta con una intensidad particular en las re- giones septentrionales y que mas tarde continue, con menor intensidad, en el resto del pais. El analisis se basa en los jovenes en edad normal de entrada a la universidad en Italia y muestra que su numero bajara del 31 al 35% entre 1995 y 2008. Una comparacion interna- cional pone en evidencia la naturaleza singular del caso italiano. Los casos hipoteticos de e- volucion de la poblacion universitaria elaborados segun distintos indices de escolaridad (por edad y por nivel) muestran la posibilidad de importantes desequilibrios regionales y el riesgo de deterioro del sistema universitario que, como ha sucedido hasta el momento, con- tinuaria ocupandose exclusivamente de la formacion superior de los jovenes (mientras que solamente el 5% de la poblacion de 20 anos y mas posee un diploma de estudios supe- riores). Esta es la ocasion de redefinir en profundidad los estudios superiores en Italia; esta redefinicion se justificaria a traves de la reduccion de la poblacion joven y la jubilacion de casi la mitad de profesores actualmente activos.

The Job Market for Teachers in Italy: The AlmaLaurea Documentation

The ALMALAUREA database offers broad documentation on the characteristics of university graduates who opted for a teaching career one year, three years and five years after their degree, forming a representative sample of Italian school teachers. This essay offers both a descriptive analysis of the data on the characteristics of the groups examined and some deeper study to bring out more specifically the ways in which the features of university trained teachers differ from those of other university graduates. The underlying behavioral hypothesis is that educational and vocational choices depend not only on individuals’ social and cultural background but are also shaped by economic and socio-cultural motivations. The intent of the in-depth study is to determine the distinctive traits of the various groups of teachers, deliberately selected for uniformity with respect to their educational careers and consequently their employment chances.

AlmaLaurea nel sistema universitario italiano

AlmaLaurea into the Italian university system Born in a narrow basement of the University of Bologna, the AlmaLaurea project has made a name for itself over the course of its first 10 years of activity as a highly qualified component of the entire Italian university system. It aims at monitoring the quality of the formative processes of graduates as well as their occupational condition and at facilitating the intersection between demand and supply of qualified labour. The institutionalisation as an inter-university consortium and the growing voluntary membership of an ever more substantial number of universities (36 universities, with 410,000 curricula vitae stored in a databank) has rendered AlmaLaurea a nearly indispensable point of reference for the universities’ governing bodies, for analysts, students, teachers, and for businesses seeking qualified personnel. AlmaLaurea’s uniqueness lies in having created an integrated system capable of guaranteeing documentation which is complete (universities are accepted into the Consortium on condition that they make available information on their entire student body), periodic (the surveys are taken at regular intervals), well-timed (year after year, a ‘snapshot’ of the universities’ internal and external performances may be obtained) and updatable (the databank is ‘living’ to the extent that the curricula vitae are updated by the graduates themselves and therefore keep up with the graduates’ professional pursuits). All of these factors are made possible by the extended use of information technologies, both for managing the graduate databank and for disseminating its services via the Internet.