The university surveys the career pathways of its graduated students

Universities closely follow how their teaching and how the degrees they grant meet the changing competence needs of the working life. The Aarresaari network, formed by the career and recruitment services of all the universities in Finland, organises an annual survey targeting master’s and doctoral graduates. The invitation to participate in this year’s survey has been sent to those who graduated from the university in 2014 with a master's degree and to the doctors who graduated in 2016.

Petri Suomala, Vice President of Aalto University, invites all students who graduated in these years to respond: ’We hope that you will participate in large numbers. We will obtain valuable and topical information from you which will also help us to plan for the best possible teaching for the future student classes.’

Aalto University will also benefit financially from a large number of responses as, regarding master’s graduates, responses constitute one of the grounds for the financing granted by the Ministry of Education and Culture.

Master’s graduates find their degrees are valued by employers

In 2018, 87% of the masters who responded to a corresponding survey were satisfied with their degree in terms of their career. 85% agreed that the skills and knowledge they learned could be applied well in their current job and 90% would recommend their degree to others. As many as 93% of master's graduates from Aalto University agreed with the statement ‘The degree is valued by employers’.

Based on the results, Aalto university graduates identified an ability to learn and absorb new things, self-direction, problem-solving and co-operative skills as the most important skills that they needed at work and developed at university.

Nine doctors out of ten are satisfied with their degree in terms of their career

Of the 2015 doctoral graduates more than half had found employment at companies, one fifth at a university and less than one tenth as an entrepreneur or freelancer. A total of 66% of the respondents feel that their duties have become more demanding and interesting after they had attained their degree. 89% of them were satisfied in terms of their career.

Aalto University sent a career monitoring survey to all masters who graduated in 2014 and to all doctors from year 2016 by email, SMS or mail. Responses to the survey can be submitted until 30 November.

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Aalto University graduates in working lifeAalto University doctors in working life