Employability and mobility in the valorisation of higher education qualifications: the experiences and reflections of Chinese students and graduates

ABSTRACT

In the last two decades, we have witnessed a rapid expansion of higher education in Mainland China and Taiwan, recording a significant increase in higher education enrolments in these two Chinese societies. The massification of higher education in China and Taiwan has inevitably resulted in an oversupply of university graduates, with growing social concerns for skills mismatches being found in the labour market, stagnant graduate employment and social mobility. This article critically examines how university students and graduates in these two Chinese societies reflect upon their employment experiences. Human capital theory predicts that other things being equal, raising participation in higher education will initially increase inequality as rates of return rise, and then it will reduce inequality as expansion reaches mass levels and rates of return decline. If the output of graduates outpaces the demand for their skills, which appears to be the current case in many countries, then supply and demand pressures reduce the pay premium for degrees and lower income inequalities. However, this study clearly demonstrates that the massification and the universalisation of higher education in Mainland China and Taiwan, respectively, have actually intensified inequality.     

Compelled to Compete: Chinese graduates on employment and social mobility after international and domestic study

The article offers unique insights into international and domestic graduates’ career progression and social mobility experiences in China. Drawing on in-depth interview data with master-level graduates, the analytical results reveal that the majority of the participants (both domestic and international) perceive that international graduates have more opportunities and better career progression, but the analytical results show that both domestic and international graduates secured positive employment outcomes. Significant gender disparities exist, as women, both international and domestic graduates, are still disadvantaged in terms of occupational attainment and career prospects and report lower employment satisfaction. All domestic graduates reported not only positive employment outcomes in the labour market but upward social mobility. In contrast, the majority of international graduates reported not having achieved the same level of social status as their parents. Graduates’ differentiated relations to China’s state institutions of Bianzhi, Danwei and Hukou and social connections (Guanxi) heavily influenced their employment trajectories and social mobility. We argue that the participants’ conflicting perceptions are linked to the intense labour market competition encouraged by the sustained expansion of domestic higher education enrolment and amplified by the increasing number of international graduates. The societal institutions defuse to some extent conflicts over economic interests arising from the marketisation of social life.     

Graduate Credentials in a Changing Labour Market

This article analyses the changing links between higher education and the labour market in terms of changing conceptions as to the capacity of higher education to reduce social inequalities, on the one hand, and to channel its graduates into the more prestigious forms of employment, on the other hand. It turns out that for the most part higher education does not reduce social inequality and may in fact reinforce it. At the same time, given the increased numbers of graduates and changes in the demand for graduates having certain specializations, it is clear that higher education no longer offers the same guarantee of prestigious employment to all its graduates as in the past. But higher education remains a form of employment insurance policy for them in that it will help them minimize their risks in terms of future employment and possible downward social mobility. It is the key that along with other forms of cultural and social capital, which are not equally distributed, will help open the door to employment, admittedly wider for some than for others.     

Diverse Expectations and Access to Opportunities: is there a Graduate Labour Market?

Restructuring of the labour market has led to changing demand for skills and concern about potential mismatch between needs of employers and competences developed in higher education courses. This paper extends analysis of the Great Expectations survey of UK final-year undergraduates in 1996 to explore the development of skills and competences in different disciplinary areas and the anticipated career trajectories of students. A detailed assessment is undertaken of the extent to which respondents appear prepared, both in terms of the employment-related skills they consider they have developed as undergraduates and in their expectations, for the changes which have taken place in the labour market in the latter part of the twentieth century. While findings from transitional early careers need to be interpreted cautiously, it does appear that expectations varied less than emerging outcomes for this cohort in the vanguard of mass higher education. Subject and gender differences in expectations and outcomes were significant and 'non-traditional' graduates were more likely than others to report that they were experiencing difficulties in the transition from education to employment. The graduates themselves had a flexible approach to the labour market but it seems that employers may have more inflexible recruitment graduate practices. Further research is required but there is clearly a danger that wider access may not lead to correspondingly wider career opportunities.     

No ‘self’ left behind? Part-time distance learning university graduates: social class,graduate identity and employability

Higher education (HE) is regarded as a pathway to upward social mobility for those from lower socio-economic backgrounds. Social mobility is itself seen as important both for individual and national prosperity and is a key driver of government funding for HE. While access to HE has substantially increased over the past number of years, the evidence suggests that social inequalities continue to be reproduced, with working-class students more frequently accessing lower status institutions and courses. This in turn can impact negatively on their labour market outcomes. This paper offers a critical appraisal on the employability discourse. Drawing on a survey of 268 distance graduates from an Irish university, together with 5 individual interviews, findings indicate that distance graduates are likely to be from lower socio-economic backgrounds and have delayed participation in university education for reasons relating to social class. Although mostly in employment, they are motivated to participate in HE by their concerns regarding their long-term employability. The literature identifies that our employability is something we negotiate with others. This paper posits that, for distance graduates, in addition to this process of convincing others, the graduate must also convince themselves of the value of their own achievement. Transitioning to graduate employment, and developing a graduate identity, can therefore be a slow internal and external process of negotiation.     

Merit matters: Student perceptions of faculty quality and reward

This empirical research explores a role that the quality of teaching and students’ competence play in shaping students’ views about the upward mobility opportunities in their higher education institutions. It is often understood that the principal role of higher education is to promote merit-based mobility amongst students, as well as espouse the merit-based upward mobility amongst its faculty. How exactly students in higher education form their views about the presence of meritorious upward mobility is the question that remains largely unanswered, especially in developing societies. To help answer this question, the study relies on the binary logistic regression of data collected via 762 surveys from 6 public higher education institutions in Bosnia and Herzegovina and determines what factors help predict students’ views on whether faculty promotions are merited or not. Findings in this article are sub-selected from a broader empirical work, and they point to a novel link: the quality of teaching and students’ views on whether the most competent students are first to graduate in their faculties are the key predictors of whether students believe the faculty members within their higher education institutions are promoted based on merit. In the absence of meritocracy, students are, as this research finds, likely to categorize the educational system as corrupt. When the merit-based competition does not determine who moves up within higher education, one's belonging to the political, social, and economic elites tends to become the alternative basis for the upward mobility. Moving away from the merit-based mobility can have broad social consequences particularly in developing countries that are poorly equipped to react to such digressions, underlining the relevance of this work cross-nationally.     

Factors influencing job attainment in recent Bachelor graduates: evidence from Australia

Favourable graduate employment outcomes are critical for future enrolments in higher education. Enrolments fund higher education providers and ensure a continuous supply of graduates to enhance organisational effectiveness, national productivity and global competitiveness. Recent evidence suggests the global financial crisis has softened graduate labour markets. Stakeholder concerns for graduate career prospects and the adequacy of return on investment from studying at university prompt exploration of those factors which influence graduate employment outcomes. This study tests, using logistic regression, a model of job attainment in recent Bachelor graduates of Australian higher education providers using national data gathered in 2011 (n = 28,246) and 2012 (n = 28,009). Findings indicate employer selection criteria broadly align with our understanding of what constitutes graduate employability, including technical expertise, generic skill mastery and a successfully formed graduate identity. Labour market opportunities, however, are not based on merit alone with employers favouring those graduating from prestigious universities, part-time students and whose study incorporated elements of on-campus learning. There were also noted variations by discipline, age and residency status. The study enhances our understanding of which factors influence graduate employment outcomes and discusses implications for relevant stakeholders.     

Student employment: social differentials and field-specific developments in higher education

In this article, we examine social origin differences in employment patterns across different stages of higher education and compare these differences between vocational and academic fields of study. Using data from a large-scale German student survey, we study the development of inequality, according to social origins, in student employment from first-year to graduating students. We show that inequality in job quality exists and is partly attributable to the need for students from lower social origins to work in order to finance their studies. We hypothesise that initial inequalities decrease as students progress through higher education. While we find evidence for this hypothesis, we also show in multivariate models that the reduction of inequality in the student labour market is explained by prior differences between social origin groups.     

Linkages between higher education and the labour market: lessons from redemocratized Hungary

This research examines how higher education graduates in redemocratized countries, such as Hungary, receive information from multinational corporations regarding employment opportunities. It also assesses how the information exchange between higher education and the labour market, i.e. multinational corporations, shapes new relationships between these two entities. The findings from this study seem to suggest that multinational corporations have influenced Hungarian higher education institutions in several profound ways: (1) the redefinition of graduate recruitment procedures, (2) the shift in employee characteristics that employers value, (3) the implications for curricular design and teaching styles, and (4) the ranking and prestige of universities. The results of this study are not only useful for countries in transition to a market economy but for other countries as well.     

Labour Market Relevance of European University Education. From Enrolment to Professional Employment in 12 Countries

In accordance with the education policy which puts human capital at its heart, higher education is expected to produce marketable competent professionals in response to the needs of an expansive knowledge-based economy. In one reading, to support competitive knowledge-based economy, higher education students should graduate as young and fast as possible. The article asks whether it is credible that the young & fast principle as an objective for university education would provide a feasible way of enhancing professional labour force to serve knowledge economies. The analysis of study careers of 17,000 European second cycle university graduates shows that transitions from school to higher education to professional employment vary considerably in the 12 countries. The key finding is that countries with rather slow progression in the initial part of the transition tend to do better in the end, and vice versa. Belgium (Flanders) is the most obvious example of young and fast-graduating students that need a relatively long period after graduation to start their professional careers. In Finland, Austria, and Norway, relatively old and experienced graduates are employed rapidly. The time before professional employment after graduation is short for students who have acquired relevant work experience and acquainted themselves with professional fields. The youngest professionals are found in France where they tend to have access to opportunities for professionally relevant training. However, professional employment cannot be fostered by simply trying to recruit student populations as young as possible, but rather by enriching the labour market relevance of their student careers.     

Massifying and internationalising higher education,changing labour markets and social mobility: challenges for education and urban governance

ABSTRACT

The major objective of this introductory article is to set the wider policy context for the present special issue with a particular focus to examine how the massification and internationalisation of higher education has taken place in Asia. More specifically, this introduction highlights the major arguments of articles being adopted in this issue. The contributions have been selected and gathered from presentations in various regional and international research events held in the last few years. Having experienced the growing pressure for enhancing their global competitiveness, governments in Asia are determined to expand their higher education systems to provide more learning opportunities for addressing pressing educational demand, putting additional resources to internationalising student experience and raising the research profile in order to quest for regional education hub and world-class university status. However, the rapid expansion of higher education has indeed created more university graduates than the labour market could fully absorb. It has become problematic when the global market currently experiences economic stagnation. This special issue sets out against such a political economy context to examine issues related to changing labour conditions, youth mobility and challenges for education and urban governance.     

Graduating in uncertain times: The impact of COVID-19 on recent graduate career prospects,trajectories and outcomes

This article examines the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on recent UK graduates' initial employment outcomes and how they experience the transition into a challenging labour market context. We draw on longitudinal survey and interview data, collected from recent graduates who had mainly graduated during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in summer 2020 that examines graduate perception of the labour market, impacts on labour market entry impacts and early career progression and effects of periods of unemployment or under-employment. The article shows some of the main impacts of the recent pandemic-affected labour market, including: widespread concerns about job opportunities and employer support, the perceived employment impacts of the pandemic and early signs of scarring and labour market disorientation amongst those who were struggling to find employment of their choice. Such experiences are clearly intensified during the specific COVID-19 context, but the policy implications they raise have wider relevance for supporting graduates during future periods of labour market volatility.     

Is It worth Being ‘Traditional’ in An Era of Mass Individualization?

This article deals with the question of how the segmentation of higher education participation connects with the segmentation of the graduate labour market into jobs with different levels of quality. With data comprising educational and labour market histories of graduates with Master's degree from nine European countries, the author analyses how graduates with traditional higher education careers come off on the European labour market compared to those with non‐traditional educational careers. When examining the quality of the employment that graduates obtain early on in their career, three criteria are applicable: the job stability and the quality of the education‐job match to both the level of their studies and skills. The method used in the analysis is logistic regression. Results indicate that being a traditional/non‐traditional graduate does affect the odds of finding proper employment; however, whether the influence is positive or negative greatly varies with respect to gender; the number of graduates with the same type of educational career on the local market and the criteria used to evaluate the adequacy of the employment.     

Geographical stratification and the role of the state in access to higher education in contemporary China

This article extends the geopolitical theory on geographical stratification to understand the persistent inequality in access to higher education in contemporary China. Drawing on empirical evidence on the geographical distribution of institutions, and differentiated admissions and recruitment processes, I examine how political and institutional arrangements shaped opportunity structures in access to higher education for students from different geographical origins. I conclude that the state's decentralised governance gave the eastern area more power and advantages while the students from the poor western and central regions suffered a lack of opportunities in achieving upward social mobility through higher education.     

Universities,civil society and the global agenda of community-engaged research

This article explores a key point of tension in contemporary discussions of community-university research engagement. Two perspectives are discussed. The first suggests that changes in the nature and structure of research have helped create democratic research spaces and opportunities within the university for communities. In this emerging (global) knowledge democracy movement, community-based researchers are increasingly seeking to connect lessons learned in local settings to the global context. The second perspective situates such developments in the context of the knowledge economy of higher education and suggests that community engagement is also developing in a manner that supports the advance of knowledge capitalism. The decisive tension is that universities around the world are being encouraged by governments to assume greater responsibility for economic development and to translate knowledge into products and services for the market – whilst at the same time being tasked to work with communities in alleviating the social and economic excesses of the market.     

社会分层对高等教育公平影响的实证研究

本文基于问卷调查所得数据,考察了社会分层对高等教育公平的影响.实证结果表明,优质高等教育机会的分配仍然向国家干部、企业经理等优势社会阶层的子女倾斜,社会分层扩大了高等教育的起点不公平;优势社会阶层子女在高等教育过程中处于有利地位,社会分层扩大了高等教育过程不公平,在重点本科院校中,过程不公平程度较大,而在一般本科和专科院校中,过程不公平程度较小;优势社会阶层子女更容易获得就业机会,社会分层对高等教育的结果公平有着不利影响,在重点本科院校中,这种影响较小,而在一般本科和专科院校中,这种影响较大.文章对此提出了相应的政策建议.     

农村家庭高等教育投资问题的思考：教育公平的视角

投资高等教育是提高农村家庭人力资本存量水平的重要方式,是农村家庭实现“向上流动”的根本途径.但在当前高等教育大众化和就业市场压力下,农村家庭高等教育投资的风险正在增大.针对农村家庭子女接受高等教育机会不均等的现状,从教育公平的视角分高中前教育、高中教育、高等教育、大学生就业等阶段分析其成因,进而提出激励农村家庭投资高等教育的政策建议.     

Higher education and economic development in the OECD: policy lessons for other countries and regions

This paper sheds light on the role of tertiary or higher education in economic development across two successful OECD case studies: Finland and South Korea. A number of key aspects are discussed, from the nature of the social contract between higher education and the economy to the endogenous characteristics of domestic higher education to the links between the sector and regional development, innovation and the labour market. The lessons learned are of importance to policy makers and institutional planners across the world, not least to less developing nations and regions, due to the unprecedented opportunities brought by a global, knowledge-based economy.     

Lifelong learning for elders in Hong Kong: policy and practice

ABSTRACT

This article explores non-traditional student and graduate views of the university in Ireland and Portugal as it relates to their expectations of, and experiences in, the labour market. The research is based on in-depth biographical interviews with 61 non-traditional students and graduates conducted longitudinally (85 interviews in total). The article contextualises the research in relation to the expansion of higher education internationally as well as national and EU policies aimed at supporting a ‘knowledge-based economy’. It offers an overview of the meaning of precarity. It then outlines key empirical findings from the research related to student expectations of their degree and their post-graduation experience in the labour market. In particular, it explores the phenomenon of precarity amongst graduates how this is experienced and handled in various ways. Using a critical and egalitarian lens the overall aim of the research is to widen the focus of widening participation debates and explore how educational and institutional initiatives impact, or not, on wider social and employment inequalities.     

Evidencing student success and career outcomes among business and creative industries graduates

ABSTRACT

The teaching performance of higher education institutions is increasingly gauged by graduate employment outcomes. Measuring outcomes in full-time employment terms does not capture the complexities of underemployment, the rise of portfolio careers, the constraints of the labour market and graduate motivations for working arrangements that can allow greater flexibility and work-life balance. This study explores the career outcomes of Business and Creative Industries graduates using both traditional measures (full-time employment outcomes) and a suite of broader measures that examine career satisfaction, perceived employability, perceived career success, underemployment, and graduate motivations for seeking new roles. Findings confirm disciplinary differences in graduate experience, and raise some broad concerns about the quality of graduate employment, particularly given the lack of improvement in outcomes over time since course completion. Findings suggest graduates are optimistic about their career futures, despite unmet expectations – particularly on income.