When the first Wageningen Loopbaanmonitor appeared in 1973, the typical Wageningen graduate was a white man with a job in a government organization, a company or a NGO. Come 2010, 57 percent of alumni are women, 37 percent are from other countries and 43 percent of fresh graduates work for a PhD in a research institution. In 2006, 29 percent of the Wageningen alumni opted for research jobs upon graduation. They can find work fairly easily, taking an average of five months to get their first job. However, the economic crisis can be felt. While 80 percent of the graduates in 2008 found jobs quickly after graduation, this is now only 60 percent. Moreover, the jobs are mostly temporary research positions, such as working towards a doctorate. Among the graduates in the last five years, 26 percent say they are actively in search of work elsewhere and 35 percent say they will look for another job within these two years. Among the older alumni, the percentages of job seekers are halved. Many of the successful ones (50%) hold a managerial position in an organization. Almost all alumni have started off with a salaried job, but when they grow older, one in five Wageningen alumni has his/her own company. The Loopbaanmonitor is carried out once in five years and is an initiative by Wageningen UR and alumni association KLV. Tilburg researchers wrote to the 29,000 Wageningen graduates and received 7300 replies, sufficient for a representative evaluation.
Graduates get doctorate more often
A growing number of Wageningen graduates proceed to become researchers, hold temporary jobs, and are more often on the lookout for work elsewhere. However, job prospects for the Wageningen science graduate remain good, according to the new 'Loopbaanmonitor', a career survey.
