The concept of alumnus anatomy: a qualitative analysis of faculty member's and graduate student's perceptions and experiences

members and graduate students about the concept of university graduates. A qualitative and interpretive approach was applied with a phenomenographic strategy. The research field was University of Kurdistan. Participants included 42 individuals (25 full-time faculty members and 17 graduate students). Purposeful sampling with maximum diversity was conducted. A semi-structured interview charter was used to collect data, which continued until theoretical saturation. The data were analyzed based on theoretical coding. At the end, six descriptive categories about the concept of a graduate were obtained as follows: university product, university ambassador, lifelong learner, stressful jobseeker, social activist, and knowledge user in the job. Students emphasized the categories of university product, stressful jobseeker and social activist more than the faculty members. Lifelong learner, knowledge user in the job, and university ambassador categories were mostly emphasized by faculty members. The most unpleasant feeling about graduation was related to students, as well as the most pleasant feeling of graduation was related to faculty members; The concept of graduate was perceived differently by women, in comparison to men, due to some issues such as marriage and child care. In regard to different perceptions of the concept of graduate, it appears that the variety of theories, and political and social perceptions give rise to ideas that make the definitions, measurements and findings unmatched and incongruous.