A sound investment:over 94% of Insubria PhD graduates are in employment one year after obtaining their degree, according to the 2025 Almalaurea Report.

The Almalaurea consortium, which recently presented the 2025 Graduate Report, is publishing the 10th edition of the Report on the Profile and Employment Conditions of PhD Graduates.

The analysis covered the educational performance of 7,008 PhD graduates from 2024 at 48 universities, as well as the employment conditions of 7,218 PhD graduates from 2023 at 57 universities, surveyed one year after obtaining their qualification, and 1,764 PhD graduates from 2021 at 17 universities, surveyed three years after obtaining their qualification.

➡️ The University of Insubria offers eight PhD programmes: the calls for applications closed on 12 July.

CHARACTERISTICS OF PHD GRADUATES

There are 64 PhD graduates from the University of Insubria involved in the 2024 cohort: 1.6% of PhD graduates completed an industrial doctorate; 13.1% obtained a joint or double degree. 36.1% earned their PhD at the same university where they completed their degree, 50.8% at a different Italian university, and 13.1% obtained their degree at a foreign university. 17.2% of PhD graduates hold foreign citizenship.  

Students who decide to enrol in a PhD programme achieved, on average, good academic performance in their previous studies; 71.7% of PhD graduates who obtained their degree in Italy graduated with 110 cum laude at second-cycle level.  
The average age at completion of the PhD is 32.7 years, and 54.7% of graduates obtain their PhD qualification by the age of 30.

• Motivations for enrolling in a PhD programme and access to funding

80.3% of PhD graduates had already planned to enrol in a PhD programme at the time of graduation. Among the motivations considered particularly important were: improving one’s cultural and scientific education (83.6%), the opportunity to carry out research and study activities in an academic context (62.3%), and improving career prospects (32.8%). Access to funding during the PhD programme concerned 80.3% of PhD graduates.

• Activities carried out during the PhD

Among PhD graduates, 78.7% state that they regularly took part, for at least one year, in structured training activities within their PhD programme.  
41% undertook a study or research period abroad, and for 32% of these the experience lasted more than six months.  

Overall satisfaction with the experience abroad averages 8.3 on a 1–10 scale. 37.7% of PhD graduates report spending more than 40 hours per week on research (14.8% more than 50 hours per week), and 73.8% were involved in research groups. Finally, 83.6% of PhD graduates produced at least one publication and, among these, 94.1% published in English.

• Evaluation of the PhD programme and future prospects

To analyse satisfaction with the recently completed PhD experience, the study considered graduates’ overall opinions on several aspects. The acquisition of new, specific skills and competences received an average score of 8.3 on a 1–10 scale; in-depth theoretical knowledge scored 7.6 and mastery of research techniques 7.8.  
65.6% of PhD graduates state that, if they could go back to the time of enrolment, they would choose the same PhD programme at the same university again. 3.3% would undertake another PhD at the same university, 13.1% a PhD at another Italian university, 9.8% would enrol in a PhD programme abroad, and 8.2% would not enrol in a PhD programme again.  
67.2% of graduates believe that their disciplinary field offers greater job opportunities abroad, while only 3.3% believe that better opportunities are available in Italy.

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EMPLOYMENT CONDITIONS OF PHD GRADUATES FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF INSUBRIA

The 10th Report on employment conditions covered 50 PhD graduates from 2023  
from the University of Insubria, surveyed one year after obtaining their qualification.  

The employment rate stands at 94.1%. The unemployment rate, calculated on the labour force, is 3%.  
23.3% of those employed continue the activity started before completing their PhD, 20% reported having changed job after obtaining the qualification, while 56.7% entered the labour market only after completing their PhD.

• Characteristics of employment one year after completing the PhD

Among those employed one year after completing their PhD, 46.9% carry out activities supported by a research fellowship, 21.9% hold a permanent contract, and 21.9% reported being employed on a fixed-term contract. 3.1% are self-employed, and 6.3% receive a postdoctoral, study or research grant. Remote working involves 37.5% of those employed.  

The average monthly net salary of PhD graduates is €1,996. 9.4% of those employed work part-time. 96.8% hold intellectual, scientific and highly specialised positions: in particular, 64.5% are researchers or graduate technicians within universities, while 32.3% work in other intellectual, scientific and highly specialised professions. The shares of graduates employed in other occupations are very small.

66.7% report carrying out research activities to a large extent during a typical working day; 16.7% to a limited extent, while 16.7% report not carrying out any research activities at all.  

72.4% consider the PhD qualification to be very effective or effective for their job; 13.8% consider it fairly effective, while 13.8% believe it to be of little or no effectiveness. 73.3% state that they make extensive use of the competences acquired during their studies, 16.7% use them to a limited extent, and 10% do not use them at all.

• Characteristics of the organisations employing PhD graduates one year after completion

But where do they work? 71.9% of PhD graduates are employed in the public sector, and 28.1% in the private sector. The services sector employs 96.9% of PhD graduates, while 3.1% work in agriculture. 78.1% of those employed work in Northern Italy, 3.1% in Central Italy, and 6.3% in Southern Italy. Finally, 12.5% work abroad.