Alumni are pleased with the programme they studied at Linnaeus University
In order to find out how former students at Linnaeus University who have completed their studies are doing, a so-called alumni survey is carried out every third year. The latest survey has now been completed and the answers from the 2,000 former students who responded show that a majority of our alumni are pleased with the programme they studied and have jobs that correspond to their programme.
How have things turned out for Linnaeus University’s former students and how can we develop our programmes to help our alumni do even better? In order to find out, our alumni are regularly given the opportunity to answer questions concerning how their programme has made them equipped for working life and how they have established themselves on the labour market.
The answer to the first part of this question is that it seems to go well. Late last spring, Linnaeus University sent out the alumni survey to almost 4,000 former students and received answers from roughly half of them.
When the results were compiled, it could be established that most of them have a job that corresponds to the programme they studied, some have another qualified job that requires higher education, while only 1 out of 20 have jobs that does not require higher education.
“Those who study for a specific profession get these jobs and those who study more general programmes are in demand within broad sectors of society, that’s a general trend in the whole country”, says Niklas Ammert, pro-vice-chancellor at Linnaeus University.
Useful education
Many of those who have responded to the survey point out that the programme they studied has provided them with a good basis for working life and been useful; primarily on the professional level, but also on the personal level.
- Our alumni have use of the generic skills they have acquired, like, for instance, analytical ability, critical thinking, and problem-solving.
- Internship and practical elements are important in order to understand how a workplace and working life works.
- They feel that they have developed a broad spectrum of skills during their studies of which they have use of in their profession.
The results from the alumni survey will also be important in our continued quality-assurance work.
“From a Bildung and societal perspective, the result is both a good receipt and an excellent tool to find out in what ways the programmes the alumni studied at Linnaeus University have strengthened their self-confidence and their self-esteem. Perhaps even more importantly, the alumni also stress the importance of criticism of the sources when consuming news media and social media”, Niklas Ammert adds.
“There is also the issue whether our programmes should be closely linked to the work tasks of today or prepare our students for abilities and flexibility for an entire working life. We work really hard to ensure that our students are prepared and equipped for the labour market of today, but we also attach great importance to the longer perspective”; Niklas Ammert concludes.
About the survey
The alumni survey is sent out to Linnaeus University alumni who have been active in working life for 3–5 years. The survey has been carried out every third year since 2014 and aims to map out our alumni’s establishment on the labour market and how well the programme they studied has made them prepared and equipped for working life.