81% of Helsinki university graduates satisfied with degree

About 81 per cent of the graduates from the University of Helsinki are satisfied with their degree, while 84 per cent consider themselves able to put to good use the knowledge and skills learnt at the university.

The latest career-monitoring reports of the University of Helsinki, published recently, are based on the responses of master’s degree graduates from 2013 and doctoral graduates from 2015.

Career-monitoring surveys provide a good overview on what kinds of qualifications studies provide for professional life. Each year, Finnish universities ask those who graduated with a master’s degree five years ago how their degree has benefited them and what they think about their education and early career.

National monitoring surveys have been conducted since 2004. Looking at the average scores given on the university level, satisfaction in degrees completed at the University of Helsinki has fluctuated relatively little over the years, although the latest survey showed a slight decrease.

“The content of the work and working environments change, but that does not necessarily have a radical impact on the skills needs. For example, information retrieval skills have always been important,” said Eric Carver from the University of Helsinki’s Strategic Services for Teaching.

The job market situation varies by educational field, which is reflected in the responses. Those who have found employment that matches their educational level well are usually the most satisfied with their degree.

The career skills that are considered the most important by the graduates from the University of Helsinki included self-direction and initiative, the ability to learn new things, problem-solving skills, information retrieval skills, communication and analytical thinking, which the respondents also felt they had learnt at the university.

“Based on the anticipation of future skills needs, these skills will also be relevant to professional life in the future,” Carver said.

Skills required in professional life that were not sufficiently learnt included stress tolerance, cooperation skills, organisation skills, public speaking skills, and project management and negotiation skills.

Different fields could perhaps adopt good practices from each other, as physicians and dentists found they had gained much more stress tolerance skills compared to law graduates, for example.