Supporting evidence on skills development and use through tracking graduates

What is the European Graduate Tracking Initiative?

The European Graduate Tracking Initiative (EGTI) builds on the 2017 Council Recommendation on tracking graduates, which was a comprehensive and detailed agreement among EU countries on many aspects of graduate tracking at national and EU level. The EGTI aims to support Member States on the main objectives of the recommendation:

to improve the availability, quality and comparability of data on various aspects of graduates’ education, jobs and lives;
to encourage high, representative and continued response rates to longitudinal graduate surveys and, when possible, the tracking of mobile graduates; and
to ensure the sustainability and dissemination of graduate tracking initiatives.

To achieve the objectives of the 2017 Council Recommendation, several steps have been taken within the context of the EGTI (as illustrated in the image below). This has included mapping/benchmarking studies¹, a European Commission expert group on graduate tracking (2018-2020)², the first and second EUROGRADUATE pilot surveys (2018 and 2022), and the establishment of the European Network for Graduate Tracking (since 2022). EUROGRADUATE 2022 and the European Network of Graduate Tracking are described in more detail below.

What is the EUROGRADUATE survey?

Following a feasibility study, a first EUROGRADUATE pilot survey was implemented from 2018 onwards, laying the ground for a sustainable Europe-wide graduate survey asking every four years graduates’ feedback (one and five years after graduation). The survey includes questions covering graduates’ educational history, their employment paths, their personal skills development and their active citizenship.

The first EUROGRADUATE pilot survey was implemented in 2018 in eight countries (Austria, Czechia, Germany, Greece, Croatia, Lithuania, Malta and Norway). The survey was sent to higher education graduates between October 2018 and February 2019. Approximately 21,000 Bachelor-level and Master-level graduates were surveyed from two graduation cohorts from the academic years of 2012/13 and 2016/17.
Taking into account the lessons learned from the first EUROGRADUATE pilot survey, and as recommended by the expert group in 2020, the European Commission initiated in 2021 the second pilot phase of the European higher education graduate survey (EUROGRADUATE 2022). EUROGRADUATE 2022 was implemented in 17 countries (Bulgaria, Cyprus, Estonia, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia joined the first pilot countries). In addition, Ireland provided aggregated indicators based on register data. The comparative synthesis report on Eurograduate 2022 will be published soon.
To ensure the continuity of a regular European graduate survey of higher education students, a call for funding to participate in EUROGRADUATE 2026 is currently open for designated bodies, with a first deadline on 17 December 2024 and a 2^nd deadline on 18 March 2025. The EUROGRADUATE 2026 survey will be conducted in the context of the further development of the European Higher Education Sector Observatory (EHESO) and will seek to enhance synergies.

What is the European Network of Graduate Tracking?

In response to the expert group recommendations, the European Commission established the European Network of Graduate Tracking in 2022 to support the implementation of the EGTI and of the Council Recommendation by promoting cooperation and mutual learning between countries. The Network brings together expertise from a wide range of stakeholders³ and creates a forum for discussion and analysis of European solutions to support the development and use of graduate tracking systems, either through graduate surveys or through using administrative data. A range of activities are organised for and with the Network, including an annual meeting of the Network, peer learning activities, thematic working groups and webinars. To find out more about the Network and European-level discussions and policy developments related to graduate tracking you can sign up to the European Network of Graduate Tracking newsletter here.

Monitoring graduate outcomes under the European Higher Education Sector Observatory

The European Graduate Tracking Initiative has the potential to support the further development of EHESO in multiple ways, in particular through synergies with the EUROGRADUATE survey and the European Network of Graduate Tracking. For example, EHESO will be able to use the collected data and indicators from the EUROGRADUATE survey to inform the European Higher Education Scoreboard, which showcases relevant indicators on countries and higher education systems.

By aligning efforts across EGTI, the EUROGRADUATE survey, and EHESO, this collaborative approach will allow further synergies, by facilitating comparative analyses, helping to identify trends and good practices. Over time, and with respect for personal and institutional data protection principles, graduate outcomes data could be integrated in EHESO’s institutional benchmarking tool.

¹ See, for example, the ‘Study on mapping VET graduate tracking measures in EU Member States’ (2018) and the ‘Study on mapping graduate tracking policies and practices in the EU and other EEA countries’ (2020)
²The Expert Group report was finalised in November 2020 and published February 2021
³The Network currently has more than 100 members from national graduate tracking reference points (NRPs) of the countries of the European Economic Area (EEA), European-level stakeholders and social partners, as well as representatives from multiple European Commission Directorates-General (DGs) and agencies.