| Abstract: | 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. |
