Selection criteria were set in Memoria VERIFICA for each type of master’s degree studied and the seven participating universities. Requests for access to the chosen masters’ degrees and a commitment to report the results were made. The questionnaires for the phase 2 survey study were drawn up and validated. Closed questions were used, enquiring into the academic transition processes at two points: the beginning of the course and the end of the first semester. In April and May 2017 a pilot study was performed in three of the participating universities (the UB, the UAB and the US).

The questionnaires took different formats (either hard copy or online) and were written in different languages (Spanish, English or Catalan) according to the master’s degree and university. The data were gathered during the 2017-18 academic year. The SPSS-Win v22 program (licensed to the participating universities) was used to make both overall and degree-specific analyses of students’ academic and social integration, satisfaction, motivation, self-efficacy expectations, adaptation to the degree and professional identity construction.

Participation varied according to the degree and university, averaging around 50% of students enrolled on each course, with a 2% maximum margin of error for both questionnaires. For the Initial Transition Questionnaire (CIT-MU in its Spanish initials) the final sample totalled 1,795 students on 44 masters’ degrees; while for Transition Follow-up Questionnaire (CST-MU in its Spanish initials) the sample numbered 1,325 students on 36 degrees. During the data-gathering process there were problems of access to the US and UNED masters’ in law.

Amongst our findings we noted a change in the characteristics of students taking Spanish social science masters’ degrees. The current profile is of a student averaging 27 years old, female and with Spanish nationality. International students were concentrated in the UB and UAB. Only a third of participants worked, normally in fields unrelated to the subject of their degrees. Slightly over 50% had transitioned straight to their master’s from their first degree. The type of the master’s degree was key in understanding students’ transition processes, in terms of both their pre-course motivations and their experiences at the beginning of the course and after receiving the first exam results (the end of the first semester). As the first semester progressed, opinions stabilized and there was a substantial decrease in intentions to give up studying. The causes for dropping out at the start of the course were associated with contextual factors and frustration of initial expectations, while in the middle of the degree they were more linked to the need to work and the difficulty of combining working and studying.

As a complement to the questionnaires and autobiographical narratives (Objective 3), the Delphi method was applied with a group of academic managers from the participating degrees, in order to verify the favourable and unfavourable factors in the student transitions identified in Phase 2b.1, “Expert Sample.” The schedule foreseen in the work plan was modified so that we could draw on students’ opinions and experiences. 11 coordinators participated in the Delphi process in the 2018-19 academic year