During the spring of 2004, the Statistical Research Center (SRC) of the American Institute of Physics sent a questionnaire to all 797 degree-granting physics and astronomy departments in the US. The purpose of this questionnaire, "The Academic Workforce Survey," was to determine the number of faculty positions in physics and astronomy, the number…

This article describes the course and causes of the expansion of higher education in the UK since the 1960s. The number of university students from modest social backgrounds has increased, but they comprise much the same proportion of the university population as they did 40 years ago. Though personal rates of return from higher education are…

This article deals with the question of how the segmentation of higher education participation connects with the segmentation of the graduate labor market into jobs with different levels of quality. With data comprising educational and labor market histories of graduates with Master's degree from nine European countries, the author analyses how…

The case of Germany is taken as an example of cyclical variation in higher education enrolment in the sciences. This article looks at the causes of this "oscillation," focusing on the cycle of the 1990s and argues that the mechanism underpinning these fluctuations is the cobweb model. This model establishes a recursive loop between…

One of the most important technical institutions of higher learning in Russia is the Urals State Technical University (USTU). In the years that it has been in operation, Urals State Technical University-Urals Polytechnical Institute (USTU-UPI) has trained more than 185,000 specialists of high qualifications, people who have gone on to work in…

In this article, the authors' focus has been the issue of access to a higher education "from the standpoint of differences in the resource characteristics of families." The authors state that in mapping out educational strategies for their children, families must make a rational choice as they look for the optimal correlation between the…

The change-over to a knowledge and service society means greater opportunities for the highly skilled. Participation in tertiary education is increasing in all countries, and it can be seen that graduates are being absorbed into knowledge intensive services in the labour market. The international trend towards making vocational education and…

Canada is facing a new set of challenges. The first challenge facing Canada is the rising economic power of countries such as India and China. These countries have traditionally competed on the basis of their large, low-cost labour pools, but are now making major investments to insert themselves into knowledge-intensive, high value-added sectors.…

The aim of this article is to analyse the transferability of higher education undertaken abroad to a domestic labour market. More specifically, how do Norwegians who have undertaken their education abroad cope on the labour market compared to those who have a corresponding education from Norway? To examine this, we analyse short-term labour market…

In recruiting and retaining outstanding faculty and staff in a competitive higher education labor market, a state-of-the-art domestic partner benefits plan is a necessary and valuable component of a college or university's overall talent strategy. Edna Chun and Alvin Evans examine how, as part of a comprehensive total compensation package,…

Given the public's demand for better teaching (and its indifference to scholarship), one might think there would be a vigorous demand for high quality instructors at all levels of higher education. Instead, the healthiest market remains that for scholars. In this article, the author discusses the differences in the markets for scholars and…

In a context of considerable changes in the labour market and higher education sector in the UK, a discourse of employability has become increasingly dominant. Universities are urged to ensure that they produce "employable" graduates, and graduates themselves are exhorted to continually develop their personal skills, qualities and…

This paper outlines the main substantive findings from the latest stage of a research programme which began in 1982. The most recent project was designed to provide an interim snapshot through a questionnaire survey of the progress of a group of young men and women whom we have been following since the start of their secondary education when they…

In-company training undertaken by vocational students can be a very good opportunity to acquire skills; but it is also a very delicate process. The author, who examined the traineeships of students in formal vocational training in Catalonia as part of his doctoral thesis in economics, understands skills acquisition as an interactive process…

Volumes have been written about the value of more and better education. But is there sufficient evidence to support the commonly held belief that we, as individuals and as a community, should be investing more in education? This book explores that question in unprecedented detail, drawing on empirical evidence from an impressive array of sources.…