The “external” effectiveness of education is measured in several countries by interviewing graduates on their experience of job searching, on competency utilization at work, and other steps of graduates’ paths after their university studies. The indicators based on graduates’ data rely on the assumption that graduates’ success mirrors their learning.
The effectiveness indicators we will consider are the following:
a) Rate of employment within some months after graduation
b) Rate of refusal of offered jobs
c) Competencies exploited at work
d) Overall measures of human capital
e) Measures of social capital
f) Graduates’ satisfaction with their job
g) Satisfaction of employed graduates with their studies
h) Consistency between job and studies
We will first evaluate the international literature to evaluate if it is plausible reaching a common understanding on the measurement of education effectiveness of comparable groups of universities in different countries. Then we will present the results of the analysis of survey data collected by the University of Padua (Italy) that may enable to perceive the degree of communality of the considered indicators as measures of the education effectiveness of the study programs of the concerned university.