The Graduate Impact Survey (GIS) is an annual survey among Erasmus Mundus Joint Master Degree (EMJMD) graduates. Its main objective is to examine the impact of EMJMD programmes on their participants and to identify specific aspects of the programme that make a particularly valuable contribution to personal and professional development. The GIS is a quantitative survey which analyses developments over the years but also takes a closer look at data collected at a single point of time.

In 2019, EMJMD students who graduated in the calendar years 2009/10, 2014/15 and 2018/19, i.e., less than two or four, five, nine and ten years earlier, were contacted directly by e-mail and 1,947 of them completed the survey.

The main findings from GIS 2019:

• EMJMD alumni report very positive experiences and high levels of satisfaction with their EMJMD programme. They are (very) satisfied with both the quality of the courses and networking opportunities, and with scheme’s infrastructure and coordination. Asked about possible areas of improvement, many were particularly interested in a stronger focus on attaining and applying practical competences during their courses.
• EMJMD graduates credit the programme with a substantial impact on their career and intercultural competence. They report that their studies:
  • enriched them socially and personally,
  • helped them develop their employability and
  • enhanced their proficiency across a range of competences
• In the first six months after graduation, graduates were typically seeking professional employment (33%), had continued their studies (21%), had applied for further studies (16%), or had taken up a professional position they had secured while still completing their studies (21%). Most of those seeking employment had found a job within six months of graduating (74%) and were able to secure positions that had at least some sort of international dimension in the form of interaction with international colleagues and customers.
• At the time of the survey, the majority of graduates were in work (mostly in a full-time position, though some were also self-employed or in part-time employment) and/or pursuing further studies.

What’s new in GIS 2019?

The 2019 GIS’s methodology differed markedly from that of previous GIS in terms of its target group and the issues covered by the questionnaire. The 2019 GIS was also the first to engage in data weighting in the form of iterative proportional fitting (raking) in order to address imbalances between the sample and the graduate population overall.

Many thanks to all graduates who took part in the GIS 2019!

Find the full survey here.

 

Vienna, 07 November 2020