Graduates' Human Capital: an Outcome in Itself or an Instrument for Achieving Outcomes?

For a graduate, human capital is the combination of professional competence, moral values and social relationships that he or she can demonstrate when looking for work. In this paper we examine how a graduate can transform his or her human capital into social value and we pose the question whether the human capital possessed by graduates can be considered an outcome in itself or an instrument for achieving professional and social outcomes. In the former case, the human capital indicator can be considered a proper measure of the educational effectiveness of a study programme; in the latter, it is an indirect measure only. We analyse a large amount of data collected on graduates at Padua University and conclude that human capital is ancillary for measuring the effectiveness of university education in Italy.