A Policy Reform Aimed at Improving the Job Quality of Graduates

The research investigates the employment opportunities and outcomes for Italian graduates in business economics, after two decades from the beginning of the Bologna process. Preliminarily, the study identifies the predictors of the employment status of graduates one year after graduation. Subsequently, the job quality of the employed graduates is assessed. Both kinds of analysis evidence problems of mismatch between education and occupation, leading to bad job quality. To overcome job deterioration, the research suggests a new policy measure. According to the proposed solution, higher education institutions should be funded by governments not only for graduation rates or for employment rates of their students, but, above all, for the job quality of their employed graduates. Without such adjustments, the strategy of the Bologna process, although valuable for its purpose, will remain an incomplete reform failing to address the main question: the job quality, rather than just the quantity, of graduates.