Higher education and the world of work : : conceptual frameworks, comparative perspectives, empirical findings / / by Ulrich Teichler.

• VerfasserIn: Teichler, Ulrich,
• Place / Publishing House: Rotterdam, The Netherlands ;, Taipei : : Sense Publishers,, [2009]; ©2009
• Year of Publication: 2009
• Language: English
• Series: Global Perspectives on Higher Education 16.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource.

What does higher education offer to make students competent actors in the world of work and other life spheres? This issue is most controversially debated in economically advanced countries since about four decades when higher education in economically advanced countries began to serve larger ranges of the occupational pyramid than merely the intellectually and professionally chosen few. The author of this volume analyzes a broad range of issues over four decades of his academic career. Employers’ and graduate surveys, secondary analyses of education and employment statistics as well as analyses of policy and academic debates form the basis of the key argument: Neither trust in expectations formulated by employers or in income and status as measures of successful study nor isolated claims for the pursuit of academic knowledge for its own sake and for the critical functions of higher education are a suitable reference frame for understanding the dynamic links between higher education and the world of work. A “match” between the number of graduates and the corresponding positions or between the competences acquired during study and job requirements cannot be expected. Students are more ambitious and strive for a broader range of goals than they can expect to be rewarded. Graduates have to be both highly qualified experts and sceptics as far as conventional wisdom is concerned, and they have to be prepared for indeterminate tasks. Key themes of this collection of essays are: the causes and consequences of an imperfect “match” between higher education and employment; the tensions between “employment” and “work” orientation in higher education; opportunities of a “highly educated society”; the dynamics of the variety of students, the patterns of the higher education system and the horizontal and vertical diversity of careers; different notions of higher education and the world of work among economically advanced countries; major controversial notions of professional relevance of study in policy and research debates.

Table of Contents

Preliminary Material -- Higher Education and the World of Work: A Personal View of Continuity and Change of Issues (2008) -- Education and Employment (2000) -- Occupational Structures and Higher Education (1992) -- Higher Education and the World of Work: Changing Conditions and Challenges (1998) -- Research on the Relationships Between Higher Education and the World of Work: Past Achievements, Problems and New Challenges (1999) -- Higher Education and Work: Dimensions of a Complex Relationship (1995) -- Educational Expansion, Qualification and Status Distribution (1980) -- “Appropriate” Employment and “Utilization of Knowledge” (1988) -- Employers’ Expectations and Recruitment Criteria (1988) -- Graduation and Degrees (1996) -- Responses by Higher Education Institutions to Challenges of the World of Work (1996) -- Graduate Employment and Work in Selected European Countries (2000) -- Does the Programme Matter? Findings of the Kassel Graduate Survey (1993) -- Graduate Employment and Work in Europe – Concepts and Findings of the CHEERS Study(2007) -- Employment and Work of University Graduates in Japan and Germany (2002) -- Higher Education and Graduate Employment in Germany in Comparative Perspective: Changing Experiences and Debates (2003) -- Stability or Change of Graduate Employment and Work in Europe: A Comparison of Two Surveys (2008) -- Higher Education and the European Labour Market (2007) -- International Mobility of Students and Early Career (2007) -- “Employability” or “Professional Relevance”: Changes in the Relationships Between Higher Education and the World of Work on the Way Towards the European Higher Education Area (2004) -- Professionally Relevant Academic Learning (2008) -- References -- Sources -- Global Perspectives on Higher Education.