Recent decades have seen a massive expansion in higher education (HE), fuelled by high expectations about its private benefits. This has raised concerns about the impact on the employability of recent graduates and the potential mismatches between their skills and the competences required by the job structure. Equally, it could set the ground for…

This study examines whether the expansion in higher education over the past 20 years has contributed to better education-job matches on the labour market. In particular, we relate changes in the average formal schooling level of workers on the regional labour market to the educational attainment of the recruited staff within companies operating on…

Many studies assessing national policy reforms in education focus on the likelihood of acquiring an advanced education and the associated returns in the labor market. In this paper, the authors investigate the impact of the Israeli Academic Colleges Law that was designed to promote the acquisition of higher education among all segments of the…

The positive side of employment during studies is the increase of net investments in human capital. The main objective of this paper is to discover factors influencing the work of students in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro and to compare students' employment in these three Western Balkan countries. Quantitative analysis based on…

The paper analyses employability as a floating signifier--a construct that accommodates different and often contending meanings. A preliminary analysis of scholarly literature identifies two opposed interpretations of employability--an individual responsibility versus a comprehensive context-aware construct. These are subsequently applied to the…

Combining work experience with degree-level study is seen as a key differentiator for securing employment upon graduation in a competitive employment market. The positive benefits of sandwich courses, where up to 12 months is spent working in industry, are widely acknowledged in academic literature though data analysis tends to focus on cohorts in…

The article aims to empirically verify the impact of educational capital on the success or failure of higher education graduates' transitions. The paper uses the example of geography graduates in Poland who took part in a nationwide survey in 2012, six months after their graduation. This allowed the author to collect detailed data on the…

Generation Y can be taken to be the group of people born between 1977 and 2000. The aim of this paper is to investigate the initial career entry and long-term career employment expectations of UK undergraduate Generation Ys, in order to inform employability skills development in higher education. The empirical research comprises 26 focus groups…

The "National Strategy for Higher Education to 2030" in the Republic of Ireland (universally known as the Hunt Report) represents the latest and most assertive attempt by the Irish state to re-construct higher education in accordance with economic utilitarian objectives. This paper sets out to analyse the historical context, key themes…

This study explores Portuguese academics' acceptance of employability as a purpose for higher education further to the Bologna reforms, focusing on their understandings of employability and their teaching practices. The data were gathered through focus groups in which participated around 70 academics from 3 disciplinary areas, belonging to…

This research study particularizes the general descriptions of the European Qualifications Framework for Lifelong Learning, as compiled and developed within the Romanian qualification framework, to the business and economics field in general and to the property economic analysis and valuation field in particular. By means of an empirical analysis,…

In many educational settings, students may have an incentive to take courses where high grades are easier to achieve, potentially corroding student learning, evaluation of student achievement, and the fairness and efficiency of post-graduation labor outcomes. A grading system that takes into account heterogeneity of teacher standards and student…

This study investigated labour-market orientations of students at a Swedish University with a dual/diverse focus on vocational/academic objectives. The aim was to investigate whether and how levels of students' labour-market orientation vary with social background, change during the study period, and are related to approaches to studying and…

Universities now regard student mobility programmes as a context for their students to acquire intercultural skills, cosmopolitan outlooks and potential labour market advantage. If executed thoughtfully, immersing students in unfamiliar cultural environments and different academic systems can make them aware of their own taken-for-granted…

Recent policy in England has advocated the introduction of fast-track degrees to provide an alternative, shorter route to a bachelor's degree. It has been argued that this will widen participation in higher education and increase labour market flexibility by providing an option in which undergraduates spend one fewer years out of the labour…