ELA 7: autumn improvements
New functionalities of the Polish Graduate Tracking System (ELA) for academic communities, higher education institutions, education policy makers, and labour market experts
The seventh edition of the Polish Graduate Tracking System has been enhanced twice in 2022. The summer enhancements addressed the needs of secondary school graduates and university students. The enhancements’ main focus was analysis of the circumstances of university graduates and doctors on the labour market.
The autumn improvements include:
- descriptions of the professional and educational circumstances of students
- descriptions of the professional activities and education processes of doctoral students
- information support for higher education institutions that aspire to be included in international rankings
1. Descriptions of the professional and educational circumstances of students
The sixth edition of ELA introduced reports that pertain to students' education paths. The autumn changes add new reports that concentrate on students' professional activities. They comprise three sections. The first contains information on students' activities in the labour market by year of study. The second is devoted to the labour market factors that shape students' education paths. The indicators that describe students' activities in the labour market are presented for academic years in which particular modification types of education paths occurred. The third section of the report compares the achievements of graduates and dropouts on the labour market. The professional activity indicators presented in this section enable comparisons between the early careers of graduates and dropouts.
The analysis, conducted by ELA experts at the National Information Processing Institute (OPI), has revealed that gaining work experience during studies is crucial for the future careers of graduates. Despite a significant number of students in Poland combining their studies with work, their involvement in developing their careers at that stage depends on the nature of their studies and on their fields of study. The 2021 edition of ELA revealed the scale of the modification of students' education paths, as well as various aspects of the process—from fluent transitions between fields of study, through long breaks in education, to dropping out of higher education. Decisions on the modification of the education process often interact with various forms of students' professional activities. The new reports enable comprehensive analysis of the scale and dynamics of students' activities on the labour market and the establishment of a link between such activities and students' decisions regarding their education.
The results presented in this section are useful not only in the devising of general policies that pertain to science and higher education, but also in helping higher education institutions to analyse the interactions between studying and working more thoroughly. This information might also be valuable to current students, who are increasingly interested in combining their education with professional careers. The data can help such people to assess the labour market accurately and to plan their professional and academic careers.
2. Descriptions of the professional activities and education processes of doctoral students
The information contained in this section appears in ELA for the very first time. The characteristics of the education paths of doctoral students and their activity on the labour market during the preparation of their dissertations supplement ELA's description of the academic community. Two types of report are made available in this new section: 'Education paths of doctoral students' and 'Professional activity of doctoral students'. The reports present the results on four levels: national, of particular education domains in Poland, of particular institutions that deliver education to PhD candidates, and of particular education domains seen from the perspective of such institutions.
The reports on the education paths of doctoral students provide information on the efficiency of the education of PhD candidates (including the percentage of whom that are awarded postgraduate degrees and years of education per doctoral degree) and on the increasing number of dropouts.
The reports on the professional activity of doctoral students present information on their work experience and the intensity of various job forms in consecutive years of their postgraduate education, as well as data on how much doctoral students earn during each year of their education. The reports also compare the achievements of postgraduate programme dropouts and successful doctors in consecutive years following the their decisions to drop out or to pursue a postgraduate degree.
The majority of results pertain to phenomena that occur during doctoral studies; these, however, are being supplanted by doctoral schools, which were introduced as part of the Act on Higher Education and Science. Information on education in doctoral schools was first published for the 2019 cohort. For that reason, information on the complete education cycle of PhD candidates is available only for doctoral studies. In the future, both systems will be compared in terms of their efficiency and changes in the attitudes of doctoral students towards their education and careers.
The new section of ELA will enable higher education institutions and public policymakers to better understand scholarly career mechanisms in Poland. One indicator that might prove useful in such analyses is 'number of years of doctoral education per doctoral degree awarded'. This illustrates the average number of years of education needed at a particular academic institution to award a degree to one person. The period is getting longer not only due to the longer periods students require to prepare their dissertations, but also the higher numbers of PhD candidates who drop out of postgraduate programmes. Analysis of this indicator might help institutions to plan doctoral education costs, which is crucial in the new system.
Doctoral school candidates and doctoral students can use the information contained in this section to collate their expectations and experiences with the general trends of the dynamically developing doctoral education environment in Poland.
3. Information support for higher education institutions that aspire to be included in international rankings
Many Polish higher education institutions aspire to be included in international university rankings. Their positions in such rankings not only reflect their renown, but also stimulate international scientific exchange. When institutions apply to be included in international rankings, they must provide information on the circumstances of their graduates. A considerable amount of such information could be found in ELA, but it required trawling through the system's resources. To facilitate this task, all data that is necessary to apply to be included in international rankings is now presented in the form of integrated indicators that are ready to be inserted into rankings forms.
The seventh edition of ELA provides indicators that are used by the three most recognisable international rankings:
- the Shanghai Ranking (Global Research University Profiles)
- the QS World University Rankings and the QS Graduate Employability Ranking
- U-Multirank
Dedicated reports generated for each higher education institution compare indicators that are calculated according to the methodology required by particular rankings. The algorithms used to design the indicators have been consulted with the entities that are responsible for the rankings. ELA's solutions reconcile the specific nature of the Polish graduate labour market with the requirements of international rankings. For example, U-Multirank recommends that applicants provide graduate unemployment figures for the eighteenth month following graduation, but also allows other figures (e.g. those recorded in the twelfth month following graduation). Having consulted the matter with the ranking’s creators, it was decided that the values recorded in the twelfth month would apply in ELA. This was decided with consideration for the specific nature of the Polish graduate labour market for those who hold degrees in medicine or oral medicine. In the case of junior doctors, the eighteenth month following their graduation falls between the completion of their traineeships and finding their first jobs—a period characterised by high unemployment among every cohort, which is due to administrative procedures rather than problems with landing jobs. Being registered as unemployed in that period entitles graduates to health insurance. The twelfth month following graduation is unaffected by administrative factors and can, therefore, be used universally to present the circumstances of graduates of any programme in Poland.
The rankings require that some indicators be provided not only in the context of specific institutions, but also in that of the programmes such instructions offer.
The list of rankings and indicators will be extended in future ELA editions to satisfy the needs of Polish higher education institutions.
