University, AlmaLaurea: freshmen grow and Stem area rises by 15%

The increase in freshmen in the last academic year, the first of the Covid-19 era, has seen an evident increase in registrations (+14 thousand freshmen compared to 2019/20), in line with that recorded for the year. previous one. According to the latest AlamaLaurea Report presented at the University of Bergamo, from the Mur data the loss of freshmen starting from 2003/04 is gradually reabsorbing and to date the contraction is 3.2%, but more pronounced in the southern areas – 18.9%. In this way, the possibility of returning to the years of maximum expansion of the university system is revealed. In the last year, among other things, universities in the Center and the South have grown more than those in the North (North + 2.5%, Center + 7.7% and South and Islands + 5.0%). Regarding the trend of registrations by disciplinary area, the Mur shows interesting results: compared to the 2003/04 academic year, the Stem area shows an increase of 15%. The health and agro-veterinary area recorded an increase of 2% compared to 2003/04. Finally, the artistic, literary and education area and especially the economic, legal and social area are still below the 2003/04 share of matriculation (respectively -4% and -15%). But it is a composite picture that emerges from the Report on the Employment Condition of AlmaLaurea Graduates and which highlights during 2020 some critical issues in employment opportunities, in particular for new graduates, while among graduates five years from the title the effects of the pandemic, with regard to the indicators analyzed, seem completely marginal. The Report also photographs the increase in smart working and home working. In particular, in 2020 the employment rate was 69.2% among first level graduates one year after graduation and 68.1% among second level graduates in 2019. Five years after graduation achievement of the degree, the employment rate is 88.1% for first level graduates and 87.7% for second level graduates. From the photograph taken by AlmaLaurea, it also emerges that the average age of graduates Italians go down to 26 years and 50% of those who have obtained the degree are women. The average age at graduation for all graduates in 2020 is 25.8 years: 24.5 years for first-level graduates, 27.1 for single-cycle master’s and 27.2 years for master’s graduates biennial. A figure that also takes into account the delay in enrolling in the university course (this is the delay compared to the ‘canonical’ ages of 19, for the first level degree and for the single cycle degree, and 22 years, for the master’s degree. two years), which among 2020 graduates averaged 1.4 years. Women, who for some time have made up over half of graduates in Italy, represent 58.7% of the total among graduates in 2020. This share has tended to be stable over the last ten years. There is a strong differentiation in the composition by gender of the various disciplinary fields. “The critical issues that the AlmaLaurea 2021 Report has been highlighting for some time have been constant. I expect that with the outcomes of the pandemic these will need to be monitored even more closely to understand where the world of work is going”, commented the Minister of University and Research, Maria Cristina Messa, speaking at the presentation of the AlmaLaurea 2021 Report. “The change in the world of work could be one of the fastest. What new jobs and, based on these, what are the guidelines that universities can take? “asks Messa. “Universities – said Messa – must maintain their characteristic of transmitting science, knowledge and competence in an extended way, not addressed to the specific profession. They must maintain the ability to do research and transfer to the new generations the knowledge that derives from research and competence. which allows graduates to be able to compete on the market. Despite this, the university must be aware of what new jobs are, aware that digital skills are a reality, aware that attention to the ecological transition is a reality and that funding that are implemented today with the PNRR will allow the issues of the ecological and digital transition to focus a great deal of attention “. For the Mass “we must continue to monitor the number of graduates that we would like to increase, also according to the needs of society, facilitating access through residences, scholarships and a variety of training offers. Wages are still too low”. According to data from AlmaLaurea, the average graduation grade has remained substantially unchanged in recent years (103.2 out of 110 in 2020, it was 103.0 in 2010), but with appreciable variations by type of degree course: 100.1 for first-level graduates, 105.6 for single-cycle masters and 108.0 for two-year masters. Among the two-year master’s graduates, the final mark is very high, in particular due to an incremental effect with respect to the performance obtained at the end of the bachelor’s degree program (in 2020 the average increase in the degree mark in the master’s degree compared to the first level is 7.6 points out of 110) underlines the AlmaLaurea Report. Finally, Ivano Dionigi, president of Almalaurea, underlined that “from the 23rd report various positive signs emerge on graduate profiles, such as the increase in enrollments, regularity in studies, the high degree of satisfaction with the training course, with respect an overwhelming majority of graduates declare that they prefer face-to-face teaching “but” some chronic critical issues remain, in particular the low number of graduates and poor social mobility, due to the fact that the decisive element in the choice of studies is still the economic context and cultural heritage of the family “. (by Andreana d’Aquino)