Mass Higher Education and the Changing Labour Market for Graduates: Between Employability and Employment

by Fátima Suleman (Editor), Pedro Videira (Editor), Pedro N. Teixeira (Editor)

Overview

As higher education continues to expand and an increasing number of graduates enter the workforce, this insightful book considers the crucial social and economic questions raised by this societal shift. Fátima Suleman, Pedro Videira and Pedro Teixeira bring together an array of experts to illustrate the connections between higher education and the labour market across continents.

Covering both developed and developing countries, chapter authors identify common employment patterns and anomalies of the employment conditions of graduates in different economies. Analysis explores the higher levels of overqualification in countries with low levels of high-tech manufacturing and service sectors and examines the overall benefits of higher education from a labour market perspective. This crucial book argues that the relationship between higher education and the skilled labour market is increasingly complex, and that higher education faces significant challenges to promote the employability of graduates whilst the labour market system attempts to absorb this skilled workforce.

This is an invaluable resource for students, academics and graduates specialising in higher education, education policy, employment relations and labour policy. Its statistical analysis of the changing international labour market is also key for labour market stakeholders and policymakers.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781035307142
Publisher:	Edward Elgar Publishing
Publication date:	08/10/2024
Pages:	316
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.25(h) x (d)

About the Author

Edited by Fátima Suleman and Pedro Videira, Instituto Universitário de Lisboa (ISCTE-IUL), DINÂMIA’CET and Pedro N. Teixeira, Faculty of Economics and CIPES, University of Porto, Portugal,

Table of Contents

Contents

Foreword: the never-ending tension between the expansion of
higher education and graduate careers xii
Ulrich Teichler
Acknowledgements xv
Introduction: the complex transition of higher education
graduates into the labour market 1
Fátima Suleman, Pedro Videira, and Pedro N. Teixeira

PART I GRADUATES’ LABOUR MARKET
CHALLENGES AND STRATEGIES IN
MASSIFIED HIGHER EDUCATION SYSTEMS
IN HIGH-INCOME COUNTRIES
1 The consequences of the dualization of the French higher
education system for graduates’ vertical mismatch in the
labour market 12
Jean-François Giret and Janine Jongbloed
2 The school-to-work transition among college graduates in
South Korea 35
Jisun Jung and Soo Jeung Lee
3 The Spanish higher education system and the
employability of its graduates 57
Adela García-Aracil and Rosa Isusi-Fagoaga

PART II GRADUATES’ LABOUR MARKET
CHALLENGES AND STRATEGIES IN
MASSIFIED HIGHER EDUCATION SYSTEMS
IN MIDDLE-INCOME COUNTRIES
4 The expansion of higher education and overeducation in
Portugal: insights from the last two decades 80
Fátima Suleman, Pedro Videira and Pedro N. Teixeira
5 The economic situation of higher education graduates in
the labour market in Poland 102
Dominik Antonowicz and Jarosław Domalewski
6 The massification of higher education and labour market
outcomes of university graduates in Russia 125
Victor Rudakov, Sergey Roshchin, Ksenia Rozhkova
and Pavel Travkin
7 From employability to employment: university education
and employers’ requirements in Chile 157
Oscar Espinoza and Noel McGinn

PART III GRADUATES’ LABOUR MARKET
CHALLENGES AND STRATEGIES IN
EMERGING HIGHER EDUCATION SYSTEMS
IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES
8 Growing pains: higher education expansion and graduate
employment in China 183
Po Yang
9 Social origin, skills, and graduates’ formal employability
in Brazil: how does it vary across fields of study and institutions? 206
André de Holanda Padilha Vieira and Maria Ligia de
Oliveira Barbosa
10 Growth, employment, and employability in India:
a gendered outlook 231
Mona Khare and Sonam Arora
11 The Lebanese labour market: the bittersweet reality 250
Leila Youssef
12 Conclusion: global trends for the economic and social
factors affecting the returns of higher education 276
Fátima Suleman, Pedro Videira, and Pedro N. Teixeira

Editorial Reviews

‘This book on the effect of higher education massification on graduate labour markets provides important insights into this complex but highly relevant phenomenon. The differences in socioeconomic and higher education contexts addressed in the book offer a valuable basis for analysis of global trends and lessons and recommendations for the future.’

Hans de Wit

‘Through a diverse set of country studies, this impressive book demonstrates the complexity of graduate employability in high-participation systems of higher education. While the stratification of outcomes among graduates is a common finding across diverse national cases, the scale and texture of the problem is nuanced and country specific. This expertly researched book is essential reading for anyone interested in the role of higher education in the economy and will be of great interest to both academics and policymakers.’

Brendan Cantwell

‘This book addresses one of the most pressing issues that education and economics has had to confront – the relationship between higher education and the labour market. The strength of this volume is that this issue is studied comparatively, drawing attention to the different kinds of education and economy that determine the fate of graduates.’

Hugh Lauder

‘Through a refined and nuanced analysis based on case studies from around the globe, this timely volume sheds light on the importance of systematic accounts on graduate employability that move beyond classic human capital postulates and, instead, consider the complex interplay between structural dimensions and institutional features – social, cultural, economic – that play an important role in the observed outcomes.’

Rómulo Pinheiro