University choices and work destinies in Italy

The need to match formal academic education with the ‘know how’ required by the labour market gives birth to both co-operation between Universities and enterprises, and to ‘flexible’ academic curricula. Students can choose from a wide range of University degrees, and within each program can choose the applicative field/major and opt for a short work experience, the so called stage. The feedback from the University-enterprises interaction is clearly observed in graduates’ job opportunities, since they constitute the third pole in a triad of changing relationship. The case of the Faculty of Statistical Sciences at the University of Milano – Bicocca, in the academic years from 1998/99 to 2002/2003, allows one to identify patterns in undegraduates’ educational strategies and poses questions as to the relationship between academic knowledge, individual expectations and actual experiences at work.