Higher education and the world of work: The perennial controversial debate

Abstract

Scholars have confused practitioners for about five decades with contradictory messages about the relationships between higher education and employment. On the one hand, expansion of education is praised as a vehicle for economic growth and social well-being, on the other hand, substantial proportions of university graduates are characterized as "over-educated." Moreover, the main-stream literature on higher education and the world of work is misleading in the three respects: (a) An implicit belief that a close "match" is desirable, (b) an over-emphasis on the "vertical" links and a neglect of the "horizontal" links; (c) an over-estimation of the impact of the university (study conditions and provisions) on graduate employment and work. Over the years, repeated political campaigns have spread across economically advanced country calling for a closer links between study programmes and presumed economic demands, most recently under the label of "employability". A closer look of these discourses suggests that universities need to be better informed about employment and work of their graduates in order to act in a targeted way (subordination to presumed demands, pro-active approaches, etc.), but the information is only valuable if they undergo a demanding process of interpreting these findings while reflecting on (a) their notions of a desirable society, (b) their educational and training objectives and (c) the expected impact of their educational measures.