Towards a European graduate tracking mechanism: Recommendations of the expert group
This report is published and disseminated in the Member States and other EEA countries, as well as to the relevant EU agencies, and discussed in relevant EU entities that relate to higher education, vocational education, data gathering, and evidence-based policymaking. The topic of the use and proper utilization of data on graduate outcomes at the national and European level in line with the needs of the different users should be further explored. The European Commission and the Member States need to make formal political decisions on the issues of capacity building, the content, schedule, and roll-out of the European Graduate Survey, EU-level data management, and access issues, the governance model, and the funding of the EU-level graduate tracking. The open issues identified in this report should be discussed at the relevant level in the context of the new governance model. In particular, clarifying the role of Eurostat and national statistical offices is important for the further development of EU-level graduate tracking. High-quality data on the pathways of higher education and vocational education and training (VET) graduates after they finish their studies enable policy-makers and educational institutions to improve future teaching and learning outcomes, the employability of graduates, tackle skills gaps and mismatches and ensure social inclusion in education. Data on graduates that are comparable at the EU level enable cross-country comparison, which in turn enables benchmarking, the identification of policy areas in need of attention, better targeting, and higher efficiency of education investment. In the Council Recommendation on tracking graduates (2017), Member States committed, with the support of the European Commission, to collect information from higher education and VET graduates that is comparable at the European level.
Link to the publication: Towards a European graduate tracking mechanism – Recommendations of the expert group : October 2018 – October 2020
