Country Report on Employability and Mobility of Bachelor Graduates in Italy: Mixed Outcomes of the Bologna Process

In order to make more reasonable international comparisons between graguate outcome studies, two main stylized facts of the Italian setting are spelled out: the rapid ageing of the population and the scarcity of youths; the scarcity of highly qualified manpower. Secondly, a very compact comparison is carried out on the characteristics of pre- and post-reform graduates and on the strengths and weaknesses of the Italian higher education system. This paper, after a short introduction, in paragraph 1. synthetically describes the study structure of the Italian higher education system and the main features of the Bologna Process reform in Italy. In paragraph 2 a short description is presented of the AlmaLaurea graduate surveys used for the analysis and the AlmaLaurea broad model. Paragraph 3 offers an account of the main characteristics of bachelor-level graduates, especially in terms of socio-biographic background and course of study. Some evidence on graduates’ international mobility is put forward in paragraph 4. In paragraph 5 the main features of the available evidence on employment and further studies of bachelors are presented, while paragraph 6 is devoted to the presentation of the main evidence concerning the professional success of bachelors. Paragraph 7 outlines the major conclusions that can be drawn, at this stage, on the open debate on the impact of the reform. The appendix displays basic data analysed in the previous paragraphs