Agorà: Assessment of Graduates’ Outcomes and Retrospective Acknowledgements

With the AGORA (Assessment of Graduates' Outcomes and Retrospective Acknowledgements) project, an interdisciplinary group of scholars analyzed the employability and careers of Padua University graduates so that hints for improving the education processes at Padua University could stem.
The data collection started in September 2007 and lasted till the end of 2011. The whole project expired in February 2012. The research is based on a telephone survey made three times in three years (at 6, 12 and 36 months after graduation), with varying cadence according to the faculty of origin, of a sample of 4769 graduates from the years 2007 and 2008.

Agora research was prepared to answer the following questions:
(a) Is it possible to measure the human capital created in college graduates by training university?
b) Can other indicators of the effectiveness of university education be created (other than human capital)?
c) Can the role of social capital in the formation and in the exercise of  university human capital be defined?
d) What job search pathways are effective in finding a job? Do exist that are specific to obtaining a good job?
e) Is it possible to represent occupations by looking at the skills used and those that the graduate feels lacking?
f) How much and what training is needed by the graduate after the obtaining of the degree?
g) What role does community service play on the job placement expectations of the graduates?
h) Does the attainment of a university degree have an effect, and if so what, on those who already have an established employment?

To view all related publications: http://outcomes.stat.unipd.it/agora.html