Evaluating The Impact of Our ISGlobal-University of Barcelona Postgraduate Programmes: Are Our Graduates Succeeding in the Field of Global Health?

At the Education & Training Department of ISGlobal we develop, implement and collaborate in different types of education programmes in the field of global health. Our graduates’ professional career and their impact on global health is key to our mission: improve global health and promote health equity. Therefore, it is our responsibility to evaluate whether our graduates are succeeding in the labour market of global health. 

In 2018, we conducted a graduate impact evaluation (the full report can be found here). The aim of this evaluation was to understand performance in terms of employability of graduates from the three programmes by ISGlobal and University of Barcelona: Master of Global Health (including tropEd track), Diploma of Global Health Fundamentals and Master of Clinical Research – International Health Track. We also wanted to examined whether the areas covered by the programmes and the competencies gained were appropriate and relevant for developing a successful career in global health.

We conducted a graduate impact evaluation to understand performance in terms of employability of graduates from the three postgraduate programmes by ISGlobal and University of Barcelona

An anonymous web-based survey was conducted in July 2018. The survey was sent to a total of 114 graduates from the first five cohorts of the postgraduate programmes mentioned above, of which 42 responded (37%).

The results were encouraging: 90% of respondents reported to be employed in a full-time or part-time job, internship or volunteer position. Out of those 90%, 78% were working in the global health sector, mainly in academic institutions (32%) and international and national NGOs (43%). Moreover, about 85% of respondents working in global health reported that their salary and level of responsibility at work increased after the programme and more than 60% believed the ISGlobal studies significantly contributed to such increase.

The results were encouraging: 90% of respondents reported to be employed in a full-time or part-time job, internship or volunteer position

Additionally, 84% of the respondents felt the programme was appropriate for them, and 62% reported to use the competencies acquired regularly in their current job. Finally, a majority of respondents (80%) felt that the training helped them having an impact in global health.

However, there is room for improvement. More precisely, to be better prepared for the job market, graduates reported four main academic areas that need to be strengthen from the programmes: data analysis, biostatistics, project management, and grant writing. In addition, career development support was identified as a missing element in the programmes. Lastly, we identified the challenges that our female graduates face when looking for jobs in global health that we need to address.

Based on these results, we can conclude that the ISGlobal-UB postgraduate programmes have significantly contributed to our graduates’ career development.

We can conclude that the ISGlobal-UB postgraduate programmes have significantly contributed to their graduates’ career development

Additionally, in order to improve the programmes and increase their impact we have finished the report with a set of recommendations for action to guide our next steps:

• Strengthen and/or increase focus on the skills and competencies identified in this survey as the most commonly demanded by employers
• Strengthen and/or increase focus on ISGlobal programmes’ skills and competencies that graduates consider most necessary: biostatistics, data analysis, project management cycle and grant writing
• Revise goals, content and offer of the seminars programme
• Increase career support activities such as career-oriented seminars and activities to support the students’ professional networking
• Address gender perspectives within our programmes and career development activities
• Engage with potential employers to identify the most relevant skills and competencies within the global health sector.

Infographic:

More information

Graduate impact evaluation - full report (PDF.)