THE graduates promote the university. But it is the Italian system that does not help young people. So much so that more and more often, to try to build a better future, they leave their city and region in the South and move to study in the North. With a loss of brains, energies, initiatives that cannot but weigh on development. This is what emerges from the XXIV Report AlmaLaurea on the Profile and Employment Condition of graduates which was presented this morning at the University of Bologna, by the director of the AlmaLaurea Consortium Marina Timoteo, during the conference “Data integration and information power. From training to the world of work ”, organized with the Ministry of the University and with the patronage of the CRUI.
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A one-way journey
What emerges: meanwhile, we remind you that the Report concerns 77 universities of the 80 members of AlmaLaurea, and is based on a survey of 300 thousand students. The first very positive fact is that 88.8% of the students are satisfied with the relationship with the teachers, and 72% would choose the same studies again and the university itself. Furthermore, it should be emphasized that in 2021 the employment of graduates between the ages of 20 and 64 is equal to 79%, compared to 65 among graduates. Graduating, therefore, helps to find work. Nevertheless, in 2021/22, after several years of increase, there was a 3% drop in registrations compared to 2020/21a decline that reaches 5 in the universities of the South. And it is precisely this flow of young people towards the North one of the most worrying phenomena, if we look at the future of the country: while in fact secondary school graduates in the North remain in the same area at 96 , 7%, and those of the Center at 86.8, among the graduates of the South as much as 28% pack their bags and leave; 16% for a university in the North, 12% for one in the Center. And even if you look at students from abroad, 92% choose a university in the Center-North. More attractive northern universities? Better job prospects? Both, perhaps, but the data should make us think. Among other things, those who leave for the North have a high social and cultural origin, and this too is not insignificant.
Many forward contracts
The family still has something to do with it today, and it shows that the social elevator remains blocked: 31% graduates with at least one parent who has a degree; ten years ago there were 27. and only 4% of foreign graduates, coming from immigrant families. Even fewer foreign graduates who choose Italy for university: only 2.5%. Internationalization is still one way. But it must be said that in the last two years, due to the pandemic, our children also have less study experiences abroad. We will see, Covid permitting.
But let’s get to the employment data. In 2021, the employment rate, one year after graduation, was 74.5% among first level graduates and 74.6 among second year graduates. Compared to 2019, there is an increase of 2.9 for second level graduates, while the one for first level graduates is almost imperceptible. The average monthly net salary, at one year, is € 1340 for the former and € 1407 for the latter. The point however is that in 40 per cent of cases they are fixed-term contracts. A significant increase: in 2008, one year after a three-year degree, 41 per cent of young people had a permanent contract. A big difference.
And at five years old? Employment and salaries rise, 89.6% and 88.5 for first and second level graduates, with monthly salaries between € 1554 and € 1635. And – finally – also permanent contracts, which exceed half of the total . Former students of computer science, ICT, Engineering, Economics, find work more easily – after five years, while law graduates are at the bottom of the list, along with those in the education and training sector. But the most confident in their future remain, in common, the young people who have studied in the universities of the North.
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