The Board of Trustees at the Miguel Hernández University of Elche (UMH) has released the results from the first report on “Job placement of university graduates. The perspective of Social Security affiliation.” According to this study, the employment index for UMH graduates ranks above the average of Spanish public universities as measured by the rate of Social Security affiliation. Specifically, the affiliation rate (Social Security registrations) for graduates of the Spanish university system four years after finishing their education stands at 64.4%, while in the case of UMH graduates this percentage increases to 68.1% (69.1% for women and 66.9% for men).

This study, which identifies the employability map of the education offered by Spanish universities, is the result of an agreement between the Ministry of Education and the Conference of Boards of Trustees of Spanish Universities.

 The report is the first from a comprehensive and ambitious study that begins the line of analysis of the university graduates’ labor market insertion with the data provided by the working lives of those affiliated with Social Security. To do this, the cohort from 2009-2010 and the transition of graduating students into the labor market were analyzed using data concerning the conditions and quality of their entrance into the labor market. Specifically, information is provided about the affiliation rate, the percentage of the self-employed, the type of work, and the workweek of university graduates, as well as the tax bracket they belong to and their tax base. As the study was conducted during the current economic crisis and this affected the results, especially those concerning the labor market, observing its evolution in future editions will be fundamental in order to confirm trends.

 University boards of trustees are the competent bodies for informing in a binding manner on all proposals for creating, modifying, or eliminating official degree programs. For this reason, the Conference considers that this snapshot provides relevant data that will enable “bringing transparency to the university system and facilitate the necessary tools for both those in charge of universities as well as the students themselves for carrying out the decision-making process with objective information concerning the labor market insertion of graduates.”

 The complete report is available at the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport’s website: http://www.mecd.gob.es/educacion-mecd/dms/mecd/educacion-mecd/areas-educacion/universidades/estadisticas-informes/informes/Insercion-laboral-egresados-universitarios.pdf