In recent years the number of PhDs in Italy has significantly grown and purposes of
PhD courses have expanded from the traditional ones. The analysis of the contribution of PhD
title for job placement and employment condition of PhDs is an important tool for evaluating
the quality and the effectiveness of PhD courses. For this reason, knowledge of the
employment status and career of PhDs becomes essential and can help to reduce the gap
between academia and labour market. The aim of this paper is to estimate a two-level
structural equation model with latent variables to assess the external effectiveness of PhD. The
analysis is performed using data from the research "Current situation and employment
prospects of PhDs", commissioned by National Committee for the Evaluation of the University
System (CNVSU) to the Department of Statistics "G. Parenti" of the University of Florence. The
proposed measure of "external effectiveness" is a latent variable obtained by evaluating the
level of satisfaction with the employment status of PhDs who achieved the title in 2008. The
opinion was expressed one year after obtaining PhD on a ten ordered point scale. External
effectiveness indicators used are Consistency with studies, Utilization of the acquired skills and
Compliance with the cultural interests