Smooth Path or Long and Winding Road? How Institutions Shape the Transition from Higher Education to Work

Abstract

Comparative research on higher education often lacks context and dynamics. OECD benchmark studies report the proportion of students of a given age cohort, their average competence scores, the distribution across disciplines, the unemployment rate by educational level and age. No efforts are made to trace the career trajectories of students asking e.g. how long it takes to find a job, how much it fits the qualifications obtained, how long people hold a job. Such studies leave us puzzled and ignorant on processes and dynamics of entering the labour market and the first years in employment. Consequently, we have no grasp on the extent to which national institutions and professions matter. We look at individual outcomes but ignore their institutional embeddedness. The study of Kathrin Leuze “A smooth path or long and winding road? Comparing the institutional embeddedness of graduate careers in Germany and Britain” fills this gap. The design is both longitudinal, using life history data from Germany and Britain, and institutional, focussing on labour market institutions in particular. Hence, differences in career trajectories between British and German students are not only described but are explained using concepts of stratification of the educational system, the role of the professions, labour market segmentation and labour market regulation. The study shows that institutions do matter. It also shows that converging educational systems - the aim and focus of the Bologna process hit on widely differing labour markets that shape the transition from school to work and educational outcomes at large. Special attention is also given to the role of the professions, a usually neglected terrain. The results are rich and path setting. University graduates in Germany have comparatively smooth paths. Compared to British students, they move faster from education into the labour market, they stay longer in their jobs, their qualifications fit better to the positions obtained. After some years in employment, however, smooth paths and long and winding roads converge, and the career trajectories of German and British graduates look very much the same. Kathrin Leuze presents a rich and highly compelling book, very well written, and excellent in both theory and methodology. The study is an essential read for researchers and policy makers alike pointing at the pitfalls of limited and unembedded reforms. Hence, Bologna is only one small step towards a truly European transition regime between school and work.