Title: Factors that contribute to graduates' satisfaction: does gender play a moderating role?

Authors: Jorge Moreno-Gómez; Lesly Silvera-Hernández; Laura Henríquez-Calvo; Henry Hernández-Gómez; Gloria Moreno-Gómez

Addresses: Department of Business Sciences, Universidad de la Costa, Calle No 58, 55-66. Barranquilla, Colombia ' Department of Social Science, Universidad de la Costa, Calle No 58, 55-66, Barranquilla, Colombia ' Department of Business Sciences, Universidad de la Costa, Calle No 58, 55-66. Barranquilla, Colombia ' Universidad de la Costa, Calle No 58, 55-66. Barranquilla, Colombia ' Department of Humanities, Universidad de la Costa, Calle No 58, 55-66. Barranquilla, Colombia

Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to analyse the factors that contribute to graduates' satisfaction by focusing on gender and job experience (employment status and salary income). We considered two measures of graduates' satisfaction: the perception of the graduate regarding the quality of the formation given by the program of the university that they attended (subjective) and the average of graduates' score performance from all the career (objective). The data were collected through a telephone interview with graduates who had finished their studies between 2013 and 2018. We employ regression models on a final sample of 1,261 Colombian university graduates. The results show that there are significant differences between men's and women's graduate satisfaction and employment status. However, we could not find differences between gender related to the salary income. Finally, the finding provides valuable information on the factors that contribute to graduates' satisfaction as guides to Colombian regulators, universities, decision-makers, and policymakers. These people should consider our findings to promote a strategy that increases job market opportunities for graduates through either obligatory laws or suggestions.

Keywords: higher education; gender; graduates; satisfaction; employment; Colombia.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBE.2022.120341

International Journal of Business Environment, 2022 Vol.13 No.1, pp.109 - 124

Received: 09 Jun 2021
Accepted: 08 Aug 2021
Published online: 14 Jan 2022 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article