Employability and Higher Education

Abstract

This paper summarizes the main findings of a research project commissioned by the Portuguese Higher Education Regulation Agency (A3ES). Six years after the general implementation of the Bologna Process in the Portuguese Higher Education system, this research stressed how employability of tertiary education graduates has evolved and how institutions have dealt with it. Three main subjects will be focused: a) the main trends in employability of tertiary education graduates, considering different statistical sources; b) an assessment of how Portuguese higher education institutions deal with the employability of their graduates, through a virtual ethnographic analysis of their websites and interviews with students, professors and board members of a few institutions; and c) a professional associations evaluation regarding the effects of Bologna process on employability, through a questionnaire to boards members.