Ancona, un ateneo per dottori di ricerca in economia politica

The paper describes the main steps of the 30-year history of the Ph.D program inEconomics offered by the Faculty of Economics at Universita Politecnica delle Marche.It outlines the main features and occupational patterns of the Ph.D holders who havebeen awarded their doctoral title in Ancona. Compared to the poor performance oftertiary education in Italy, the Ph.D program in Economics at Universita Politecnicadelle Marche represents a successful experience. Since its foundation, in fact, it hasalways been characterized by a precursory approach and by a remarkable internationalvocation. Specifically, among its most distinguishing features, the following aspects couldbe highlighted: the openness, both national and international - as for both students'selection and professional careers; a well-structured educational proposal; a sound orientationto research; a consistent use of resources { material and financial. As a consequence,doctoral graduates in Economics at Ancona outperform in terms of occupational profilesand satisfaction compared to their national peers. As data source, we adopt informationabout the Ph.D holders who were awarded their title from the Universita Politecnica delleMarche recorded over the 30-year history of the Ph.D program. Comparison with evidenceat the national level and further analysis have been proposed by elaborating data from thefirst survey conducted by Istat on professional outcomes of Ph.D graduates (2009).