We analyse the association between age at tertiary graduation and outcomes of the first phase of the working career in Italy by using a rich longitudinal dataset built merging EU-SILC survey data with individual administrative records on working careers. Labour market outcomes is observed at the entry and along the 10-year period from graduation.…

Secondary analysis of the UK's 2011/12 Destinations of Leavers from Higher Education survey reveals that many existing assumptions about graduate internships are questionable. This article proposes a reliable way of estimating the true extent of internships including those reported as 'voluntary' jobs: hidden internships. In doing so the article…

Against a background of Bologna process goals to improve employment prospects for PhD graduates, and the crisis of precarious employment conditions and prospects afflicting postdoctoral researchers -- hitherto postdocs, the OECD ([2021], "Reducing the Precarity of Academic Research Careers." In "OECD Science, Technology and Industry…

The aim of this article is to show the increased relevance of soft skills in a continuously changing environment. A research was carried out to examine and compare students' and employers' perceptions regarding the importance of soft skills in different European countries. Results show that 86% of respondents indicate an increased emphasis on soft…

Increased public investment in PhD education to drive innovation has led to a recent rapid growth in the number of PhD graduates. Academic labour markets have not developed at the same pace. An ever-larger share of the graduates is finding employment in industry. The transition from academia to industry is not always easy. The present study aims…

Brexit, Britain's referendum to leave the European Union (EU), provided the backdrop for this study, although how or even if it will be implemented is uncertain. Most UK voters supported leaving the EU, yet an overwhelming majority of young people voted to remain. In an environment of economic and labor market ambiguity, we sampled 304 UK…

Universities have responded to the expansion of higher education and restructuring of the labour market by redesigning curriculum to better emphasise transferable skills and embed pedagogies that contribute to graduate employability. However, the ways in which universities judge and share achievement still provides poor evidence of what students…

The authors develop a conceptual framework explaining monetary returns to international student mobility (ISM). Based on data from two German graduate panel surveys, they test this framework using growth curve models and Oaxaca-Blinder decompositions. The results indicate that ISM-experienced graduates enjoy a steeper wage growth after graduation…

Brand equity in higher education has received significant scholarly attention in recent years. However, there are a number of contradictions between the empirically approved determinants and the dimensions of brand equity in higher education. This research empirically investigates an adopted brand equity conceptual model in both a developed market…

Significant expansions in higher education over the last few decades have raised concerns about an over-supply of graduates in the labour market, such that a degree no longer seamlessly translates into a graduate career or occupation, with the increased life chances this could bring. In this paper, we report a study of undergraduates' perceptions…

This study focus is on career boundaries to graduate employability in a crisis economy. The underlying theoretical framework focus on career boundary theory and perceived employability. The empirical findings are based on a small-scale qualitative study that includes five focus group interviews conducted with Portuguese graduates of both genders…

We quantify the returns to higher education for degree disciplines, namely 'professional' degrees, Medicine/Dentistry, Law, Accountancy and Psychology, within the UK from 2007 to 2015. We estimate the returns to education in the form of employment and wage premia associated with each subject. Our analysis contributes to the existing literature on…

This paper examines students' views about the purpose of university education and its role in their future employability in Kazakhstan and Tajikistan. Data was gathered through focus groups with 172 undergraduate students. Findings suggest that due to socio-economic pressures, students largely see the purpose of university in terms of its economic…

This article draws on a "within-subject" design of employment of university graduates in China over two different periods, namely 2008 and 2014. This research was conducted based on semi-structured interviews and secondary data analysis with four groups of key stakeholders including universities, government agencies, labor-market…

In the difficult current socio-economic context, overqualified graduates are increasingly facing challenges in terms of entering the job market and finding jobs which fit their levels of qualifications and satisfaction. Grounded in an auto-ethnography approach, this paper reflects on the challenges that the author (a young female European PhD…