Graduate surveys
The University of Copenhagen conducts graduate surveys for all Professional Bachelor’s, Bachelor’s, Master’s and Professional Master’s programmes and Continuing Education. A common concept for data collection has been developed across the faculties. The results of the graduate surveys conducted at all study programmes at the University of Copenhagen are available here.
Why does the University of Copenhagen conduct graduate surveys?
The University of Copenhagen wants to offer high quality study programmes that prepare graduates in the best possible way for the labour market. The graduate surveys are conducted to collect knowledge about graduates’ employment circumstances and about how different aspects of the graduates’ studies have influenced their employment. In addition, through the graduate surveys the University of Copenhagen gains knowledge of graduates’ assessment of the degree to which the competences they have acquired through their study programme are relevant and in demand in the jobs they get after graduation. The graduates also assess whether there are aspects of the study programme in question (e.g. its structure and contents) that they would suggest changing in order for the study programme to prepare graduates for the labour market to an even higher degree. The graduate surveys are therefore an important element in the work involved in quality assurance of the study programmes. For future and current students, knowledge of, for example, career paths can also provide important input in relation to career guidance.
What principles are the graduate surveys based on?
Each year 1/3 of all graduates from University of Copenhagen are invited to participate in a graduate survey of the study programme from which they have graduated. The graduates who are invited have finished their study programme at least 1 year prior to the survey. The invitations are based upon a 3-year plan incorporating all study programmes, which means that all graduates are invited to participate in a survey no later than 4 years after their graduation. Here you can see when the study programmes at the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences are scheduled to have a survey conducted.
How are the graduate surveys conducted?
The graduate surveys are conducted using a common questionnaire, which makes it possible to compare results across the university’s many study programmes.
Questions are asked on the basis of five analytical themes:
- Graduates’ employment: A study of graduates’ employment situation.
- Relevance: The connection between the study programme and the labour market, including whether graduates get jobs at an appropriate level and whether they experience that there is a connection between the competences they have acquired during their studies and the competences they use in the labour market.
- Transition from the study programme to the labour market: Analysis of how graduates get jobs.
- Quality of the study programme: An assessment of the continuity and progression of the study programme, the learning objectives, and the overall quality of the study programme.
How is a graduate survey followed-up on?
At the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences we have chosen a common model for reporting the results of graduate surveys. This means that the model for reporting results is the same for all study programmes. However, the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences distinguishes between whether the education is a Bachelor’s/Master’s Programme or Continuing Education. Every second time a graduate survey has been concluded for a study programme, the results from the survey are submitted in a report to the study board. In this graduate survey-round the study board has to follow-up on the survey as part of the overall Programme Evaluation. If the study programme has to follow-up on the graduate survey as part of an Annual Programme Report a smaller report is written.
The study board of the individual study programme holds responsible for following-up on the graduate survey. This is done in close cooperation with the employer panel and the dean’s office.
You can find the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences’ procedures for graduate surveys here and read more about the Faculty of Health’s system for Quality of Education here.
You can read the reports from earlier graduate surveys conducted at the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences and reports from surveys that have been written on the basis of data from the University of Copenhagen’s common model for graduate surveys. (Please note - all reports and information on the reports is only available in Danish.)