2023-05-16 10:55:32
BarcelonaComputer science, engineering, and health science degrees are the careers that have the highest employment rate and also pay their workers the best once they hit the job market. This is determined by U-Ranking, a tool of the BBVA Foundation and Ivie. These studies are also the ones that guarantee the highest percentage of employed people with a salary of 1,500 euros or more just a few years after entering the world of work.
The U-Ranking list is drawn up based on the information provided by the Labor Placement Survey of University Graduates carried out periodically by the National Institute of Statistics (INE) and, in this case, analyzes the labor results achieved in 2019 by students who graduated in the 2013-2014 academic year. This edition, therefore, does not yet take into account the effects that the pandemic may have had on certain labor sectors, nor the impact of artificial intelligence on the labor market.
For now, the report takes into account four indicators: the employment rate, monthly income, whether the job corresponds with the studies and whether the position requires a university degree. Thus, Computer Science studies are the ones that best combine these four factors: the employment rate exceeds 96%, and 80% of graduates earn 1,500 euros or more. In addition, there are almost 93% of occupations that are highly skilled and almost nine out of 10 graduates end up working in activities related to their studies. They are followed by those with degrees in engineering and industry, followed by those trained in health sciences and social services.
If we look exclusively at the best insertion rate, the studies with the most exits are medicine, computer science (especially specializations in software development, applications or telecommunications) and aeronautical engineering. Other health areas, such as dentistry, nursing or pharmacy, also get good results (all with over 90% employability).
A little further down, the lower third of the table is occupied by studies related to the social sciences, such as sociology, psychology, journalism, geology or social work, while at the end of the table, in the lower part with some results most unfavorable, there is the archeology degree (with 77% employment but little more than half of the graduates working in this area and only 10% employed with salaries equal to or greater than 1,500 euros). The other studies with less employability are those related to the humanities, such as modern languages, art history, conservation and restoration, fine arts or philosophy.
The UPC, the Catalan university with the most integration
If we look at the exit to the labor market by universities, the specialization of the degrees taught makes the difference and, for this reason, the podium is occupied by the polytechnic universities. The Polytechnic University of Madrid is at the top: students from this center have a Social Security affiliation rate (that is, employability) of 76%, an average annual salary of 32,242 euros and a 74, 5% of employees who work in accordance with the studies they have completed.
The Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) also enters the podium of the best centers in terms of job placement, in second place after the Polytechnic of Madrid. In third place is the polytechnic of Cartagena and the Universitat Catòlica Santa Teresa de Jesús d’Ávila and the University of Nebrija complete the Top 5. Also at the top of the table are many private and young universities, which have recently structured their degree offer and opted for a composition of degrees with good placement results.
On the other hand, the public universities that proceed from general historical studies, and which by their origin tend to cover all fields of specialization, have a more limited insertion capacity as a result of their own offer, since they keep the degrees in their catalog with less insertion. This puts them at the bottom of the table.
Spain, at the tail end of Europe
The report’s findings, however, also highlight a stubborn reality. Spanish university graduates have more integration problems than the average of European Union countries. In fact, the employment rate of recent graduates in higher education (that is, both university and higher education) is between 7 and 8 percentage points below the European average.
There are 11 countries where this rate exceeds 90%, while in 2021, Spain did not reach 77%. There are only two countries with worse results: Italy and Greece.
To improve the labor insertion process of Spanish university graduates, the authors of the U-Ranking report put forward three main recommendations: pay more attention when choosing studies to the information on the employability of the degrees and improve guidance in this regard to secondary school students; promote the mobility of students so that they consider where they can find the most promising training offers and stimulate universities to take into account the reality of insertion when designing study offers.
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