The EUROGRADUATE feasibility study asks whether and how a sustainable study on Europe’s higher education graduates could be established. To this end it systematically explores:
- The demand for a European graduate study: What would a European graduate study need to deliver in the eyes of the various stakeholders? What kind of questions should it be able to answer? How important is it to set up such a study? Key stakeholders' views on these issues will be investigated. Key stakeholders are: decision makers at the regional, national, and European level, higher education managers and professionals, students, employers, employees, and researchers.
- The existing capacities for monitoring European graduates: A variety of European and international data sets regularly provide comparative information on European higher education graduates. To what extent are these data sets able to cover the stakeholders’ information requirements? What are their advantages? What are their shortcomings? What are the information gaps a European graduate study would need to fill?
- The point of departure at national level: How are higher education graduates monitored and studied in the different European countries - if at all? What are the similarities and differences between the different national approaches? How could a European graduate study tie in with national approaches? Are there common patterns in national graduate studies a European graduate study could build on?
- The options of organizing and financing a European graduate study: How could a European graduate study be organized for an efficient and effective collaboration among the partners involved? How should it be set up to lead to a sustainable project and allow for a growing number of countries to be covered? What are suitable sources of funding and how can they be made accessible?
The EUROGRADUATE feasibility study is conducted by an international research consortium of four organisations with a strong reputation and considerable experience in conducting large scale international projects in the realm of higher education: the German Centre for Higher Education Research and Science Studies (DZHW; coordination), the Institute of Advanced Studies (IHS, Vienna), the Education Policy Centre of the Charles University in Prague (EPC), and the European Students' Union (ESU, Brussels). The research consortium is supported by two project boards: the Stakeholders‘ Board and the Scientific Board.
EUROGRADUATE kicked off in October 2013 and lasted 30 months. The feasibility report was published in March 2016.
