The Polish Graduate Tracking System (ELA) continues to share new insights and update existing data. This autumn, researchers conducted an extensive comparative study on how doctoral education has evolved, following the shift from doctoral studies to doctoral schools. In addition, three ELA modules have been expanded with reports that offer deeper insights into the most popular aspects.
ELA is supporting the academic community for the ninth time, assisting university candidates, students, researchers, higher education institutions, and public policy makers.
The ELA system offers a reliable analysis of the condition of higher education institutions (HEIs) in small cities and towns. We have compared the circumstances of the 2022 master’s graduates who pursued second-cycle and long-cycle programmes at higher education institutions in Poland's largest cities of over 500,000 inhabitants and in other cities with or without powiat rights.
Higher education institution authorities are the primary recipients of the Polish Graduate Tracking System’s (ELA’s) findings. The comprehensive analysis of educational outcomes’ significance requires key information on graduates in the labour market.
Recent years have seen a decline in the number of students enrolled in second-cycle programmes in Poland. This has resulted in higher education institutions expressing concerns and citing themselves as responsible for the decreasing popularity of such programmes, which have become less attractive than other alternatives, such as the commencement of a professional career. The lower number of candidates is also attributable to demographic changes, including Poland’s persistently low fertility rate.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine of 2022 has left Poland less secure. With the Polish Graduate Tracking System (ELA), we determine whether amplified concerns have affected the employment prospects for graduates of internal and national security.
Polish universities’ efforts to promote internationalisation have led to a boost in the number of foreign students who graduate in Poland. With access to data from the Polish Graduate Tracking System (ELA), it is possible to evaluate the proportion of foreign graduates who have opted for employment opportunities in Poland and the extent of their early career success.
The Polish Graduate Tracking System (ELA) enables the unique characteristics to be explored that determine the career paths of graduates in the newly established field of veterinary sciences, which has been recently been separated from agricultural sciences. This severance offers an opportunity to compare the professional success of the graduates of the domains to analyse whether disparities exist in their circumstances.
New functionalities of the Polish Graduate Tracking System (ELA) for academic communities, higher education institutions, education policy makers, and labour market experts.
Data from the Polish Graduate Tracking System (ELA) suggests that degrees are highly valued in the labour market. Graduates often have more professional experience, are less likely to become unemployed, and enjoy considerably higher incomes than those without degrees.
A PhD degree is the first major step in the life of a scholar. The ELA system monitors how doctoral graduates fare in the labour market and their earnings.
Becoming a scholar demands diligence and sacrifice. In most cases, the first step on this path is the commencement of doctoral studies. As PhD candidates focus on their theses, research, publications, and other related activities, they are typically unable to compete on the labour market successfully. This short commentary explains what young scholars have to deny themselves in terms of their economic circumstances, as well as the differences between their position on the labour market and that of their peers who have opted not to pursue doctoral studies.
Ten percent of first-cycle programme graduates and 17% of second- and long-cycle graduates live in one of the five Polish largest cities. Despite seemingly favourable circumstances in the local labour markets, the recent graduates residing in those cities continue to face challenges. Although their relative earnings are high, they remain lower than the average local earnings of all other graduates. It also takes longer for young alumni to find regular jobs. The risk of unemployment among recent graduates in large cities is low—albeit higher than the wider unemployment rates in their regions. Alumni who live in Łódź enjoy the highest relative incomes.
How has the labour market been affected by the pandemic? Has the situation returned to normal?
What were the majors of graduates who had worked under employment contracts or been self-employed before commencing their studies? Which graduates obtained work experience during their studies?
Until recently, the Polish Graduate Tracking System (ELA) presented information on the careers of each cohort of graduates individually. When the sixth edition of ELA was launched, experts at the National Information Processing Institute (OPI PIB) added a tool that allows users to compare the circumstances of graduates from different cohorts at the same stage of their professional lives easily and quickly. The new functionality was made available to all users on 6 July 2021.
The COVID-19 pandemic has had an adverse impact on the labour market. Low numbers of new hires and the closures of some industries resulting from the restrictions imposed have led to more difficult conditions for graduates entering the workforce. The consequences primarily affected the 2019 first-cycle (undergraduate) graduates, who have subsequently faced a higher risk of unemployment and earned less than graduates of previous years.
Computer scientist – the profession of the future. Many school leavers decide to specialise in the field, expecting that it will guarantee them high salaries. But is it really true? The Polish Graduate Tracking System (ELA) indicates that computer science graduates enjoy success on the labour market; they receive the highest salaries and are rarely affected by unemployment. The data also shows, however, that differences exist between graduates who specialise in the same field — both in terms of earnings and risk of unemployment.
The Polish Graduate Tracking System (ELA) is constantly evolving. From autumn 2021, the public will be able to view the professional and scientific achievements of doctoral students and PhD holders online. The doctoral path is most frequently traversed by graduates of exact and natural sciences, and least frequently by those of the social sciences.
Obtaining a university degree does not only mark the beginning of young peoples’ careers, but is also the time that they often decide to start families and have children. Data from the Polish Graduate Tracking System (ELA) shows that female graduates who reside in small towns and villages choose to have children more often than those living in cities. Motherhood is most prevalent among graduates of the social sciences, and medical and health sciences.
Five years after graduation, graduates of legal studies have usually completed their legal training and established their own law firms. In the last (fifth) year of our graduate tracking we could observe a decrease in the risk of unemployment in this group of graduates compared to the fourth year of tracking, as well as a stabilisation of earnings at a level slightly below the average local salary.
Throughout the entire five-year period after graduation, graduates' earnings have been growing steadily and their unemployment rate has been falling, as revealed by the results of the latest editions of data analysis performed by the Polish Graduate Tracking System (the ELA system). However, this trend is less pronounced in some areas of academic study.
In general, graduates of 1st cycle studies choose to continue their education by pursuing 2nd cycle studies. After graduation, a significant proportion also acquire their first professional experience – some are already employed just after graduation. After 2nd cycle studies, professional activity of graduates increases significantly: five years after graduation over 90% of them work, and the risk of unemployment for this group of employees as well as their earnings become more stable.
Graduates looking for their place on the labour markets of small towns and villages are doing no worse than their peers from big cities and agglomerations In many respects, graduates from small towns are even more effective, as shown by the data from the Polish Graduate Tracking System (ELA). This dispels another myth – that of the small town as the place without prospects.
Young doctors work intensively and often combine full-time with part-time work (contract-based) or self-employment. As a result, they also achieve a relatively high level of earnings in comparison with their local average, surpassing even IT specialists.
Among information science and biotechnology graduates, those who studied in the academic area of technological sciences perform better on the labour market. MSc Eng degree holders are quicker to find a job and have relatively higher earnings than those who hold a Master's degree.
The Polish Graduate Tracking System (ELA) has taken a close look at the economic situation of graduates who work in uniformed services. It turns out that this group of graduates is more effective in terms of finding and keeping jobs. They are also at a lower risk of unemployment than other groups of graduates.
Which field of study gives the biggest chance for the highest salary? We have the answer. We already know the results of the latest edition the Polish Graduate Tracking System. The study shows how the graduates from 2017 fare on the job market.
Medical studies graduates and dental medicine graduates are two groups virtually untouched by unemployment. At the same time young doctors - dentists in particular - decide to start their own business after an internship - as can be ascertained from the Polish Graduate Tracking System ELA, run by the National Information Processing Institute on behalf of Ministerstwo Edukacji i Nauki.
The graduates of first-cycle and second-cycle studies in forestry fare better on the job market than others. After graduation, particularly if they worked during studying, they get higher salaries on average. It is pictured by the data gathered as part of the Polish Graduate Tracking System ELA, representing the experience of graduates from 2014, with four years of experience on the job market.
The highest relative wages after the master’s degree studies are earned by graduates of sciences and technical sciences. The programme with the highest monthly wages is data analysis - big data at the Warsaw School of Economics (Szkoła Główna Handlowa w Warszawie). Among the programmes with the highest wages there is the biggest number of faculties linked to information technology. In the case of exact sciences the best results were achieved, apart from the graduates of the Warsaw School of Economics, by the graduates of universities located in Kraków, Warsaw, and Gdańsk.
The ELA system (Polish Graduate Tracking System) results unveil interesting anomalies in the values of unemployment indicator for graduates of integrated master’s degree studies. The graduates of the integrated master’s degree studies go on unemployment in massive numbers around the seventeenth month after graduation.
The graduates of first-cycle and second-cycle studies in forestry fare better on the job market than others. After graduation, particularly if they worked during studying, they get higher salaries on average. It is pictured by the data gathered as part of the Polish Graduate Tracking System ELA, representing the experience of graduates from 2014, with four years of experience on the job market.
How can one use the individual data collected by government agencies to help current and prospective students in their career choices and to support higher education institutions and businesses in strategic decisions? How can one monitor the economic tracejtories of higher education graduates without spending a fortune? The answer is brought by ELA, i.e. the Polish Graduate Tracking System.
People who worked during their university years stand a better chance of finding hired employment or becoming self-employed after graduation, especially shortly after graduation. Over time, the experience of combining work with studies becomes less important for employers. Employability is further enhanced for graduates in technical fields, medical sciences and health sciences. Features such as gender, age or the size of home town do not play a major role.
Completion of a full-time degree programme and professional experience gained during the study period are the factors that enable young graduates to earn more at entry level positions. The difference in earnings between experienced students and those who did not take up any jobs during their study period will disappear in subsequent years. Researchers have also noted that graduates of Polish universities tend to earn ever more at the entry level.
The 2014 graduates of non-public universities earned PLN 2,982 on average, i.e. over PLN 160 more than graduates of public universities, who achieved the average earnings of PLN 2,820. This is due to their previous experience in the labour market. If this element is factored in, a full-time degree from a public higher education institution provides the highest chances of getting the highest salary in the first year after graduation.
The ELA system has shown that men are still more likely than women to find a job (hired employment or self-employment) after graduation. The source of these differences can be sought among graduates of technical universities and colleges (the differences disappear if we eliminate technology and engineering from the list). The highest percentage of women in technology and engineering can be found among biotechnology graduates (79%) and architecture and urban planning graduates (73%), whereas the lowest percentage can be found among automation, robotics and electronics graduates (5%).
Poland is an economically diversified country, which has a significant impact on how much university graduates can earn. It is commonly believed that graduates of Warsaw-based universities will earn more than their counterparts who graduated from higher education institutions in small towns. Is this really the case?