The Graduate Panel of the examination cohort 2005 was the fifth nationwide representative longitudinal survey of higher education graduates in Germany. This project was funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF); it continued the regular series of graduate surveys after the surveys of the 1989, 1993, 1997 and 2001 cohorts. The first, second and third surveys of this cohort are complete and the findings published.
One main topic of the first survey of the examination cohort 2005 - as in the previous 2001 cohort - was the development of the students’ qualifications and competence. Because there were greater numbers of graduates with bachelor’s degrees in the 2005 cohort for the first time, we also focused particularly on these qualification profiles. This therefore enabled the observation of long-term developments of bachelor graduates for the first time. A second focus point was the transition to internships following graduation.
The second survey about five years after graduation focused on the graduates' further careers after their exams. The topics of this survey were career development, uptake of further education or training, and starting families. The survey also focused particularly on bachelor graduates, since this was the first opportunity to see how many of them had taken up and completed a further course of study five years after taking their bachelor's degree.
The third survey round, ten years after graduation, continued to follow the graduates' career development. By this time, career development has often become thoroughly consolidated. The survey enabled detailed statements to be made about the long-term careers of higher education graduates. The third survey wave focused particularly on the comparison between graduates who had taken a doctorate and those who had not. The aim is to examine the material and immaterial benefits of a doctorate. Another aim was to discover how far the work tasks of those with and without doctorates differ and how far the work activities of those with doctorates who work outside academia relate to the academic world. We were also examining the question whether an academic career makes it particularly difficult to reconcile the demands of family and work. Because a large proportion of bachelor graduates were represented in the 2005 sample for the first time, we also examined the extent to which the new study structure influences the uptake of doctoral studies and the motives for this.
