DESCRIPTION OF EACH NETWORK MEMBER’S ROLE IN OBTAINING THE PREDICTED RESULTS

The institutions that have been selected to form part of this network are deeply involved in this topic and consider graduate follow-up to be a strategic activity that forms part of their functions. These institutions have proved that they have complementary experience in this issue, which constitutes an important contribution to the development of the project. In effect, the entire complex fan of knowledge and competencies related to this topic is represented here, from the preparation and use of surveys, data processing and analysis, to the use of the results for diverse purposes.

The Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey, the university coordinating the project, sees its graduates as fundamental members of its academic community, which is why their opinions and suggestions are important for enriching the curricula, strengthening promotional efforts and, in general, for improving the assorted educational services. In this context, various important studies are conducted systematically: graduates’ career history, employment of new graduates, graduates in both the public and private sectors.

The Universidad Iberoamericana, A.C. has conducted diverse graduate follow-up studies to measure the degree of fulfillment of the institution’s objectives, as well as to determine its graduates’ status regarding employment as well as their situation compared with graduates from other universities.

The Universidad de Belgrano has been conducting graduate satisfaction surveys for the past eight years, which it uses as a source of information for reforming the curricula, and which also focus on the area of employment and continuing education. It updates this information annually through a telephone and Internet survey.

The Universidad Nacional del Mar del Plata has performed graduate follow-up actions within the framework of its self-assessment. It considers that the opinion of its graduates regarding their professional preparation, their professional integration and performance, and interests in postgraduate education at any of its levels: modernization, training or perfection is highly relevant to said program.

The Universidad Federal de Santa Catarina has experience in graduate follow-up and uses the information to develop two programs: The Future Professional Program and First Employment, both of which aim to facilitate graduates’ integration into the labor market.

The Universidad Católica de Valparaíso, within the framework of its academic units’ strategic planning, conducts actions in collaboration with employers and employment associations to improve graduates’ entry into the labor market. For this purpose, it keeps a database on its alumni’s work records, which also provides a source of information for permanently evaluating the degrees that they offer.

The Universidad Católica de Colombia conducts the systematic follow-up of its graduates to gather general, academic, labor and level of satisfaction information through this program. The graduate topic is also used within the program quality accreditation processes. The university keeps an up-to-date database of 8,000 graduates, which represent just 40% of the total number of graduates.

The Consejo Superior Universitario Centroamericano (CSUCA), in conjunction with the Universität Kassel, offers a training course for Central America in the methodology for university graduate follow-up studies. Furthermore, it coordinates university graduate follow-up pilot studies in each of the seven Central-American countries represented in this course. It will play a role in convoking Central-American universities who are not GRADUA2 network members, inviting them to participate in the Seminar in the intermediate phase of the project and in the dissemination of the results achieved at the end of the project. CSUCA is an associate member of the GRADUA2 network.

The Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú has a follow-up program for Electronic Engineering and Law graduates, which has an impact on the improvement of the academic programs and the creation of continuing education programs, as well as on topics related to pre-professional internships and employment.
The Universidad del Pacífico completed a research project in 1999 called “Graduate Profile”. This study had two goals: to find out what the principal employers in the country thought about their graduates and to ascertain how their graduates rated the University. Moreover, since 2001, the University has conducted a follow-up program for new graduates in order to discover how long it takes them to enter into the labor market once they have completed their studies.

The Freie Universität Berlin is one of the top universities in Germany with regard to the development of systematic graduate follow-up surveys. It has practical experience in the use of the results for improving its prospectuses, curricular reform, and academic services for degree courses. In this way, said information has been used to identify knowledge and generic competencies to be introduced into the curriculum, the basis for a set of first-level course regulations approved by the Academic Senate within the framework of the course reforms fomented by Bologna’s process. The university is a co-founder, together with the German Deans Conference (HRK), of the recently created “Career Service Network Germany” and participates in the edition of the newly created magazine “CSP” (Career Service Papers).

The Universität Kassel has coordinated the project “Higher Education and Graduate Employment in Europe” (CHEERS Project), in which 40,000 graduates from 11 European countries and Japan answered a survey. This project helped several universities to set up regular graduate surveys. The university has analyzed the relevance of graduate studies to the evaluation processes from an academic point of view and is currently creating a manual on how to develop graduate studies. In addition, it collaborates with CSUCA in the organization of the aforementioned course for seven Central-American countries.

In the context of the CHEERS Project, the Universidad Politécnica de Valencia has also conducted an extensive survey and studies on its graduates’ integration into the labor market, and is currently conducting a survey with employers regarding their satisfaction in collaboration with the Valencian Confederation of Businesspersons. The graduate follow-up process consists of one survey as soon as the students finish their studies, a second when they pick up their certificate (1 or 2 years later), and a telephone survey that has been conducted to five promotions. The university participates in a research project on methodology and analysis of university graduates’ entry into the labor market in Spain, coordinated by the Spanish Universities Council.

The Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha is currently conducting a follow-up project on the integration into the labor market of the university’s Employment Information and Promotion Center users. This integration study allows them to rate the success level of its new graduates in the labor market, the type of companies they are working for or the training they receive when entering a company, among other relevant data for the university. This is also used as a self-assessment tool.

The Université des Sciences Sociales de Toulouse is collaborating with the CEREQ (Qualifications Study and Research Center) in the formulation and implementation of methodologies for analyzing the relations between education and employment, especially regarding higher education graduates. In this sense, over the past 20 years it has acquired a great deal of experience in graduate follow-up analysis instruments. It is a founding member of the work group on higher education in the heart of the CEREQ. This group brings together more than 20 University Observatories on graduates’ futures.

The Université de Nice Sophia Antipolis has organized the Student Life Observatory of the Université de Nice-Sophia Antipolis, which has conducted specific surveys to complement those conducted nationwide, using the same methodology. This has allowed them to generate “result indicators” to compare the local and nationwide results. It is the only university in France that has repeated this experience regularly every four years. This operation has received a very favorable evaluation from the Department of Education, in the framework of the evaluation of the Université de Nice.

The Association Columbus Paris is widely experienced in organizing collaboration networks between European and Latin-American university directors in specific areas. In this sense, through its contact with university members and the top officials from the European and Latin-American Departments of Education, it has identified the strategic interest of graduate follow-up and has made this subject one of the focal points of its activities. It has contributed to the identification of the GRADUA2 network members and will contribute to the fulfillment of this project’s objectives with its experience in preparing manuals for directors, developing self-diagnosis instruments, and organizing directors’ training programs. It will place its Web platform at the disposal of the network to house the “Graduate Site”. It will also play a role in inviting the GRADUA2 network non-member universities to participate in the intermediate phase of the project and in the dissemination of the results achieved at the end of the project. Columbus is as associate member of the GRADUA2 network.

In 1994 the Alma Mater Studiorum- Università di Bologna, at the initiative of its Statistical Observatory, created ALMA LAUREA, a consortium of 28 Italian universities backed by the Department of Education, Universities and Research. It constitutes a point of reference for all those involved in the topic of university employment, in particular the government organizations and each university’s evaluation center, to whom it provides a reliable, prompt documentary and statistical base. ALMA LAUREA helps graduates to find employment, offering a personnel selection system to companies. The consortium covers 55% of Italian graduates and prepares two annual reports, one on the graduates’ profile and the other on their professional status.

The Università degli Studi di Firenze, in the framework of ALMA LAUREA, has conducted systematic studies on the profile and professional status of its graduates, one, two, and three years after earning their degree. The breakdown by faculty and academic program has allowed the university to integrate the results into the educational process evaluation and monitoring process and make them available to the directors of each academic unit. The purpose of these activities is to develop a series of quantitative indicators for performing a comparative analysis in terms of efficiency and effectiveness (internal and external) of the different units and thus provide the directors with adequate instruments for programming and executing quality improvement actions.

The Universidade de Lisboa has developed a pioneer study in Portugal on graduates’ employment placement between 1994 and 1998 and aims to continue with this work from 2004 for those graduating between 1999 and 2003. In this way, it is planning to carry out its graduate follow-up program.

Taking into account each experience, the activities derived from this project will be distributed as follows between the participating institutions, although each institution will be involved in the development of the entire project:

As explained in the Description of Activities, each institution will participate with one representative in the first and third phases of the project, and with two in the intermediate phase (Seminar). Owing to the roles that they will play, the following institutions will participate with two representatives in all the projects’ meetings:

• Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey (Coordinator)
• Consejo Superior Universitario Centroamericano (CSUCA) – Associate member
• Université des Sciences Sociales de Toulouse
• Association COLUMBUS Paris - Associate member
• Alma Mater Studiorum - Università di Bologna