Unifying Higher Education for Different Kinds of Europeans. Higher Education and Work: A comparison of ten countries

Comparative Education ISSN: 0305-0068 (Print) 1360-0486 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/cced20 Unifying Higher Education for Different Kinds of Europeans. Higher Education and Work: A comparison of ten countries OSMO KIVINEN & JOUNI NURMI To cite this article: OSMO KIVINEN & JOUNI NURMI (2003) Unifying Higher Education for Different Kinds of Europeans. Higher Education and Work: A comparison of ten countries, Comparative Education, 39:1, 83-103, DOI: 10.1080/03050060302563 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03050060302563 Published online: 28 Jun 2010. Submit your article to this journal Article views: 153 View related articles Citing articles: 11 View citing articles Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalinformation?journalcode=cced20 Download by: [Turku University] Date: 21 December 2015, At: 05:34

Comparative Education Volume 39 No. 1 2003 pp. 83 103 Unifying Higher Education for Different Kinds of Europeans. Higher Education and Work: a comparison of ten countries OSMO KIVINEN & JOUNI NURMI ABSTRACT This article discusses the European Union s ongoing campaign to create a common European Higher Education Area against a set of comparative results on the current state of university education within the envisioned area. Our data on 25,000 university graduates from ten European countries reveal both similarities and differences between these countries in the relationships between education and the world of work, degree structures, actual study duration, quality of education, and student mobility. Our results show that university education is interwoven with various social, cultural and economic factors. There are various national peculiarities that have evolved over decades in response to the problems thrown up by the expansion of higher education. Therefore, in order to be successful, pan-european higher education policy has to take into account the constant functional and institutional diversification of mass higher education as well as the persistent cultural differences and regional inequality within Europe. Towards Multinational Higher Education Today, the globalisation-oriented education policy promoted by the OECD and the integrative education policy of the European Union (EU) have one overriding trend: the standardisation of higher education, or a gradual convergence towards a single, multinational model. There is an ongoing project within the EU to create a common European Higher Education Area, which will require member states to harmonise their educational legislation and practices (The European Higher Education Area, 1999; Prague Communiqué, 2001). However, higher education seems, in fact, to be leaning towards increasingly diverse objectives and institutional specialisation (Clark, 1995, 1998). The connections between various study paths and the world of work, including its professional and status-related hierarchies, are also in constant flux (Kivinen & Ahola, 1999; Teichler, 1998). As traditional policy-making based on the cultural traditions of the nation-state has been losing its credibility, so the idea of importing the best practices from other countries has gained in currency. As early as 1994, the Canadian scholar Bill Readings could conclude his book University in Ruins by saying that the idea of the university has transformed from Kant s rationality-based conception via Humboldt s emphasis on culture to today s techno-bureaucratic celebration of excellence (Readings, 1999). Under the conditions of globalisation and European integration, nations-states are Correspondence to: Osmo Kivinen, Research Unit for the Sociology of Education (RUSE), Hameenkatu 1, FIN 20014 University of Turku, Finland. Email: osmo.kivinen@utu.fi ISSN 0305-0068 print; ISSN 1360-0486 online/03/010083-21 2003 Taylor & Francis Ltd DOI: 10.1080/0305006032000044959

84 O. Kivinen & J. Nurmi indeed saddled by an increasing number of managerial tasks, leaving them with inadequate resources to support national cultural traditions. Having long served as a cultural cradle of the nation-state, universities have recently begun to resemble bureaucratically organised corporations aimed simply at attracting and serving clients, be they individuals or companies, following the ideals of consumerism that are based on the admiration of technology (Delanty, 2001), and at best pursuing excellence. Excellence, however, is an idea void of cultural content. Transforming various functions into something that can be measured with different kinds of indicators is important in order to make them understandable to administrators. Stephen Ball (2001) summarises the conception of policy that was originally promoted by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) but now also by the EU as comprising the following key elements: marketisation, managerialism and performance. At the same time as students and studying undergo commodification, education is subjected to ongoing accountability. The state is left with the double role of acting both as the sponsor and as the auditor who assesses the output. Education is also considered to be in the interest of economic competitiveness. For instance, the conference of European Ministers of Education in Prague in spring 2001 reinforced its earlier view that by 2010, Europe must have created a pan-european area for higher education in order to secure the appeal and competitiveness of the various institutions of higher education in the region. In addition, a European Credit Transfer System (ECTS) is in the making to harmonise studies and degrees in different European countries according to the bachelor/master s model. This system will also need to be backed up by a large-scale quality assurance system. The promotion of mobility among students, teachers, researchers and nowadays also administrators is another ubiquitous topic on the agenda at ministerial conferences (The European Higher Education Area, 1999; Prague Communiqué, 2001). The higher education policy promoted by EU Ministers of Education is grounded in the idea of the European Higher Education Area. The goal is to create a space which stretches beyond national borders and within which national interests and characteristics have been levelled out in the name of efficiency, but within which functional diversification and profiling is allowed following the requirements of the local markets. The key elements of the envisioned European Higher Education Area include a two-fold degree structure and standards for ensuring the compatibility of degrees and completed study modules, as well as a common quality assurance system. The aim is to promote maximal student and faculty mobility and lifelong learning and to ensure the quality and appeal of European education in the global education market. All this is inspired by a new kind of transnational togetherness following the ideal of the European dimension. In this article we examine the current state of the European Higher Education Area in the light of results from a comparative study in ten European countries. On the one hand, our results describe similarities and differences between various higher education systems, on the other hand they allow us to explore the initial career paths of recent university graduates. In addition, the results also shed light on the prospects of a pan-european higher education policy. Finally, we take a stand on what is thought to represent a trend of policy convergence in European higher education (e.g. Ball, 2001). Our empirical data come from the research project on Higher Education and Graduate Employment in Europe (CHEERS). In 1999 a survey was conducted in 12 European countries on higher education graduates who had completed their degrees in 1994 or 1995: the purpose was to explore their situation in the labour market and their assessments of their careers so far in the light of their studies. The results reported here are based on responses from 25,000 university graduates in ten countries; all in all the survey covered 36,000 respondents. Our comparison includes the following EU countries: Austria, England, Finland, France, Ger-

Higher Education and Work 85 many, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and Sweden, along with the non-eu member Norway (Teichler & Schomburg, 2000; Teichler, 2002). The fields of higher education in these countries vary with regard to their basic organisational structures. In England the basic degree is the short bachelor s degree: only less than one tenth of the data from England consists of master s degrees. Short degrees are also common in Sweden, Spain and France: in these three countries, they constitute around one third of the data. In Germany and Norway graduates who have completed the short degree comprise almost 10% of the respondents; in Italy, Austria, the Netherlands and Finland there were none. The German short degrees in our data are Fachhochschule diplomas awarded by comprehensive universities. The breakdown of degrees by discipline varies between countries. This will depend for instance on whether or not teacher training and health care studies are part of the university sector. In France, neither is taught at universities. In other countries the proportion of health care degrees varies between one tenth in England and one fifth in Sweden, where university education includes nursing as well as medicine. Education is a marginal discipline in Italy and Norway, whereas in Finland and Austria it is among the largest. In Austria this is the case in spite of the fact that primary school teachers are trained at non-university institutions; in Finland primary school teachers complete a master s degree in education. In this article our main focus is on the national solutions to problems caused by the expansion of higher education, and on how these solutions are reflected in graduates assessments of the quality of their education and its relevance to the work they are doing. At the same time we will, within the scope provided by our data, be able to grasp the still prevailing diversification within the planned European Higher Education Area. In addition to degree structures, we will compare the duration of studies, the quality of education, student mobility, and the relevance of graduate qualifications in working life. The Expansion of Higher Education In Europe the proportion of each age group who have participated in higher education has risen from a couple of percentage points in the 1950s to about one third. This growth is the result of the expansion of traditional universities as well as the establishment of new non-university institutions of higher education. Higher education has become available to a more heterogeneous body of students (regarding age, experience and social background) as the number of places has multiplied and exceeded the needs of the narrow élite. An increasing number of professions has become academic, since many professions are now seen to require a higher level of skills, and since the struggle over status between various professions has become more intense with the rise in the general level of educational attainment (Scott, 1998; Kivinen, 1999). With the process of expansion, universities have become more school-like and vocational. Classes have diversified and increased in size. Fewer staff members teach more students than before. In becoming more school-like, university studies have transformed from a self-governed quest for learning into an exercise of completing a standardised modular degree that will be acknowledged within the hierarchic worlds of education and work. In becoming more vocational, the goals and contents of university studies will increasingly follow the assumed needs of the labour market and various professions. Consequently, higher education has diversified into educational paths that are built on their own special branch of knowledge, the statuses and connections with professional life of which vary, and the students of which have their own expectations and professional aims (Barnett, 2000; Biggs, 1999; Teichler & Kehm, 1995).

86 O. Kivinen & J. Nurmi Even though the problems created by the expansion of higher education are more or less the same everywhere, the solutions adopted in different countries vary according to cultural traditions, the history of educational institutions and local practices. The connections between higher education and the world of work have changed in a number of ways. In many European countries the response to changes in the workplace has included measures to diversify higher education, although again the specific measures and the pace at which they have been implemented, have varied from country to country. This diversification may have taken place within the traditional university framework, through the creation of new degrees that are shorter than traditional university degrees and clearly professional in nature, or through the establishment of entirely new kinds of institutions alongside universities, i.e. the non-university sector of higher education. The meaning of higher education in each country, what it includes and excludes, provides in itself some idea of how national solutions and styles vary. In our examination we limit ourselves to higher education within the university sector, partly because it has received so much attention in the recently booming ideology of the information age, but also because it offers the best material for purposes of national comparisons. Duration of Studies in Various Countries The time that it takes a student to complete a degree varies greatly from country to country. By far the fastest students in our data can be found in England, where it took an average 4.3 years (from enrolment to completion) to complete a master s degree. French master s degree holders also needed less than five years to complete their degrees. For Norwegians, Austrians and Italians, the completion of a master s degree took on average more than seven years. Spain, Germany, Finland and the Netherlands form the group in between: in these countries the completion of a master s degree usually took around six years (See Table I). There is greater variation in degree completion times between countries than between different fields of study. In other words, the variation cannot be explained by one country having a large proportion of graduates who have studied a discipline that requires a longer period of study. There is also variation between countries in terms of which field of study takes the longest time. Education and business administration students, however, usually graduate relatively quickly. Upon closer examination of the variation between different fields of study, we find that in Norway it takes five years for masters of business administration and engineering to complete their degrees and for humanities and social sciences graduates, more than eight, whereas in Spain and Germany each field of study takes around six years. Thus, variation between fields seems to follow the national tradition, i.e. local characteristics and study cultures, rather than the needs and requirements specific to certain professions and fields of study that could actually be the same in every country. The age at which graduates enter the labour market depends of course not only on how long it takes to complete a degree, but also on how old they are when they enter university. In some countries, numerus clausus, i.e. competition over a scarcity of study places, slows down the process of finding a suitable placement for people in each age group, whereas in other countries there is open access to universities and young people can begin their studies as soon as they have become eligible. In our data, over 80% of the Italian, Spanish and Austrian respondents had entered university as soon as they were eligible, or in the following year, whereas in Sweden and Finland only half were able to do the same (see Table I). The French, too, begin their studies at a young age, but their manifold degree system makes any comparison difficult. Since the master s degree can be composed of

Higher Education and Work 87 TABLE I. Proportion of fast track university entrants, average age at enrolment, and average duration of studies in ten European countries Duration of Enrolment master s degree Fast track entrants 1 age studies (%) (mean) (mean) Italy 88 19.7 7.6 Spain 85 19.4 5.8 Austria 81 20.4 7.4 England 69 22.0 4.3 Netherlands 68 20.7 6.5 France 62 20.0 4.8 Germany 62 21.5 6.0 Norway 59 21.6 7.1 Finland 53 22.6 6.5 Sweden 46 22.9 5.4 1 Those who have begun their higher education studies in the same or the following year after becoming eligible. bits and pieces from successive degrees, most French students are able to complete some degree at a relatively young age. Along with Spain, Italy and Austria, France belongs to the group in which students were 19 or 20 when enrolling at university; in Germany, England and the Nordic countries the average age of enrolment was 22 to 23. In Germany the high average age of enrolment is partly explained by the scarcity of places, which causes queuing to the most popular fields of study; in Britain, the explanation lies in the large proportion of adult students. In Finland both queuing and the high proportion of adult students contribute to the average age of enrolment being as high as it is. Adult university students will often have experience from the labour market and elsewhere, as well as clear professional aims which influence the course and outcome of their studies. Of the countries examined here, England and Finland have relatively experienced students, whereas in Italy, Spain and France very few people enter university with a substantial amount of work experience. In England access to higher education via non-typical routes, for instance for those who are already working, is most often offered by the new universities (former polytechnics). English students are quite strictly divided into two groups: the majority of young students, and a notable minority of mature students. In other countries the age distribution is more even. There is also variation in the fields of study preferred by adult students, but generally speaking both engineering and the natural sciences have young entrants and graduates, whereas those opting for a degree in education are often older people, with experience of work and life. In all the countries investigated here, the majority of students have entered university via the traditional academic route. The proportion of people entering university upon completion of secondary vocational education ranges from almost one third in Italy and Austria to a mere two or three per cent in Finland, though in the latter case many entrants who have originally chosen the academic option, i.e. upper secondary school, have also gained a vocational training before enrolling at university. University education in Sweden seems to show quite a strong practical orientation: engineering, business administration, health care and education account for almost 75% of all degrees completed. In countries like France and Norway, where there is a sharp and clear distinction between the university and non-university sectors, the proportion of degrees in the

88 O. Kivinen & J. Nurmi natural sciences, social sciences and humanities is relatively high. On this basis it may be assumed that French and Norwegian universities are more scientifically than vocationally or professionally oriented. Law provides a useful case for a discussion of country variations in one particular field of study. In the open system hosted by Italian universities, there are many who wish to enter the lucrative legal profession. Up to 15% of all Italian graduates have studied law, and the ruthless competition for vacancies begins once they enter the labour market. At the other end of this continuum we find the case of Finland, where the field of law has lost its long-standing position as the main or even sole training site for civil servants to the social sciences, and become primarily a recruitment route for future law professionals. A degree in law guarantees a relatively good social position for those young Finns who succeed in the fierce competition over the limited number of study places. Characteristics and Quality of Education So what kind of an education do graduates from different countries feel they have received? We have reduced the ethos of higher education to three dimensions: professionality, academic orientation and school-likeness. The professionality of education is operationalised in terms of problem-based, projectstyle learning, the importance of facts, and the linking of education to work by emphasising social skills and work experience. Academic orientation means an emphasis on the self-directed search for knowledge, the liberty to choose courses and fields of specialisation, and the central role of academic dissertations. Here, school-likeness means studying that requires regular attendance and teacher-centred learning. If analysed through principal component analysis, these summary variables, professionality, academic orientation and school-likeness, each constitute a separate dimension of their own. The information captured in them covers just over 50% of the overall variation in the group of variables. The Cronbach s alpha coefficients calculated for the professionality, academic orientation and school-likeness summary variables are 0.60, 0.44 and 0.49. Generally speaking, university studies do not seem to be all that professional. The average level of professionality rises above the middle point of the scale in just two countries, Sweden and England, where it can thus be interpreted as rather high. All in all, European university education can be described as academic and school-like rather than professional. The one exception to the rule is Sweden, where none of these three features is dominant. According to students experiences, Spanish universities can primarily be described as school-like, whereas Norwegian, German and Dutch universities are mainly academic. Italian universities can be defined as academic and school-like at the same time (see Figure 1). Field of study is a much less significant factor in explaining these three characteristics of education than the country in which the university is located. By means of analysis of variance, we modelled the weight of country and field of study and their possible interaction in explaining professionality, academic orientation and school-likeness. Table II illustrates how large a part of the overall variation in each summary variable seems to be caused by various factors. By using a model that acknowledges the effect of country and field of study, we can indeed explain a substantial proportion of the variation in professionality and academic orientation; variation in school-likeness, on the other hand, depends more on other factors. For instance, 13% of the variation in the summary variable professionality can be explained by national variation, whereas field of study explains no more than 4% [1]. In addition, it needs

Higher Education and Work 89 FIG. 1. Professionality, academic orientation and school-likeness of university education in ten European countries (standardised mean figures of summary variables).

90 O. Kivinen & J. Nurmi TABLE II. Proportional significance of various factors (eta 2 )inexplaining the professionality, academic orientation and school-likeness of university studies DIMENSION Academic School- FACTOR Professionality orientation likeness Country 0.13 0.22 0.06 Field of study 0.04 0.05 0.02 Country * Field of study 0.06 0.08 0.06 to be taken into account that the interaction between country and field of study is relatively strong, indicating that the relationship between field of study and professionality, academic orientation and school-likeness varies from country to country. In other words, the relationship is not consistent, for instance, in the sense that certain fields would be more academically oriented in every country (if compared to the national average). The next figure (Figure 2) illustrates the variation in the country and field of study averages of professionality around the mean value of the entire data (the 0 level of the vertical axis; the unit of measurement is the standard deviation of the summary variable). One can refer to cultures or styles shared by a field of study, since fields of study are rank-ordered in more or less the same way in each country. In most countries, education and health care show the strongest professional orientation, law and the humanities the weakest. These similarities are outshone, however, by the differences between countries. For example, the least professional fields in England and Sweden, when measured in absolute figures, are more professional than the most professional fields in Italy. In addition, as regards the significant country-field interaction, we can see that in some countries the various study fields do not differ very much from each other in terms of their professionality, whereas in others the level of professionalism is clearly dependent on the field of study. As far as academic orientation and, to a lesser extent, school-likeness is concerned, we can also speak about country-specific cultures, since students experiences of which features were highlighted in each field are less dependent on the field of study than on the country where they have studied. Nevertheless, in most countries the humanities and also the social sciences are relatively academic by nature. Health care is clearly a non-academic field, since freedom of choice, self-directed studying and thesis writing are not key aspects of study in this field. The situation in the field of engineering tends to vary: particularly in Spain, but also in Sweden, the Netherlands and Germany, engineering is a relatively academic discipline, whereas in England the opposite is true. Norway differs from all other countries in the sense that the natural sciences and education studies are relatively academic. In Austria, as well as in Finland and Sweden, the field of education is singled out as relatively school-like, even though, as we have pointed out earlier, primary school teacher training does not belong to the university sector in Austria. In Norway, health care is particularly school-like, and in France the most school-like field is clearly business administration. It is also interesting to examine students assessments of the quality of teaching and departmental facilities (Figure 3). The quality of education is quantified by using student assessments of the teaching as well as academic and other forms of supervision they have received. In order to gain a more concrete view, we also look at what students think about the departmental facilities. The facilities quantifier consists of the standard of library facilities

Higher Education and Work 91 FIG. 2.The professionality of education according to field of study in ten European countries (deviations from the overall mean as measured by standard deviation).

92 O. Kivinen & J. Nurmi and collections, the availability of teaching materials, and the quality of technical facilities (computers, measuring devices etc.). In England students regard the quality of teaching as exceptionally high. The traditional idea of higher education as an avenue to personal growth and development and the almost pastoral care provided for students by teaching staff, still prevail in this country. The only other students who considered the teaching they received as good rather than bad, were those in the Nordic countries. Overall the differences between countries were quite wide in this respect, especially if we look at the opposite ends of the distribution. There are also clear country differences in students evaluations of facilities. In this regard it seems that Europe is divided into two leagues: the better equipped north and the more modest south. However, there are only two countries where the facilities are considered rather poor. The fields with the poorest facilities also vary from country to country. Health care graduates tend to regard their study facilities as inadequate more often than others, whereas in engineering and the natural sciences the infrastructure was mostly considered adequate. Looking at students assessments of the quality of teaching in different fields, Norwegians who generally enjoy relatively high standards of quality of teaching are particularly dissatisfied with the quality of education in the field of law. In most other countries, too, law seems to rank at the lower end of the quality scale. Assessments of the quality of teaching do not vary all that much between various fields in one given country. In Germany and Austria, however, law and health care graduates have received the lowest quality of teaching, whereas the natural sciences, engineering and the humanities are all rated quite highly. Study and Work Throughout Europe students are prepared to take up almost any kind of temporary job to finance their studies. On the other hand the quality and quantity of work that is related to students field of study varies greatly between countries, as does the transition from education to the world of work. The practical problems presented by the relationship between education and work have been tackled in different ways in different countries. Table III illustrates how study and work overlap. In Finland, where study times are quite long, students spend much of that time in work related to their studies. On average the Finnish respondents were in full-time employment for over a whole year whilst still students, whereas French and English students spent no more than a couple of months working. In England, however, students did quite a lot of part-time work. When the amount of time spent at work is compared to the overall duration of studies, we find that in many countries where studies last for long periods a significant part of this time is spent in full-time jobs: in Finland that share was almost 20%, in Austria and Norway about 10%. Italy is the exception here. The high proportion of students who are in gainful employment in Finland is due in part to the large number of adult students who work full time. The gradual transition to working life towards the end of one s studies is the Finnish way; it appears to be part of the national study culture. In addition to the Austrians, it was the Finnish students who most clearly saw a connection between student employment and their studies (see Table III). French students, who rarely worked full time whilst studying, had nevertheless managed to find a fair amount of part-time and temporary work that was related to their field of study, unlike the English, who rarely found work that was relevant to their fields of study. Graduates in more professionally oriented disciplines usually gain more relevant work

Higher Education and Work 93 FIG. 3. Quality of teaching and facilities as assessed by students, country by country mean values.

94 O. Kivinen & J. Nurmi TABLE III. Overlapping of study and work Connection of Time spent in full- Study-related full- employment during Proportion of time work related to time work as a studies to the graduates easily the field of study proportion of total field of study entering working (months) study time (%) (0 1. none-full) life 1 (%) Finland 14 18 0.45 29 Austria 9 11 0.42 28 Norway 8 10 0.37 12 Netherlands 6 8 0.39 16 Germany 6 8 0.39 17 Italy 5 6 0.26 17 Spain 4 6 0.30 13 Sweden 4 7-14 England 3 6 0.24 9 France 2 4 0.39 12 1 Persons continuing to work in the same place after graduation or finding employment without having actively to look for a job. experience during their studies than others. There are exceptions, though. Health care students had gained a fair amount of relevant experience in countries other than Spain and Italy. Engineering is among the top fields in all countries other than Spain, and the humanities come last. Finland, however, is an exception in this respect in that law students gain almost as much relevant work experience as education and health care students. In other countries, law students seem to have a hard time finding relevant work. Differences in the accumulation of relevant work experience between various fields of study are biggest in Norway and France. In Norway, health care students have a massive lead in this respect over all others. In France, on the other hand, business administration students outrank all other European students except for Norwegian health care students but law and humanities students are at the very bottom. The differences in student employment between various fields of study, i.e. how easily students find employment in their own field of specialisation while they are still studying, are clearly evident in the wide variation that occurs in the transition from study to work, job seeking and recruitment (Table III). In Finland and Austria the proportion of those who started their career while they were students or who found a job after graduation without having to look for one, was almost 30%. In Finland large numbers of graduating students continued to work for the same employer who had hired them while they were still studying. On the other hand, in Austria as well as in Germany the contacts made during one s time as a student helped many graduates to find employment. Even in this case it seems that the wide variation between fields of study is not caused by the characteristics of each field, but rather by the circumstances in each country. For instance, in Finland the transition to work is particularly smooth for engineering students: almost half of them continued after graduation in the same company they had worked for as students, or found a job without really applying. In other fields the proportion is around one in four, but only one in seven humanities students were that fortunate. In Sweden in particular, but also in other countries, a gradual transition to working life seems to be typical of humanities graduates. The differences in the labour market situation of recent graduates in various countries are also visible in the way that different job seeking channels are used and which of these

Higher Education and Work 95 channels work. In those countries where graduates had a smooth transition (Finland, Austria, Germany, the Netherlands), contacts established while studying played an important part in the job hunt proper. All in all, job advertisements were the most important recruitment channel; in Norway every second job-seeking graduate found employment by applying for an advertised vacancy. In southern Europe unofficial channels are the main route to wage employment. In Italy and Spain the single most important channel was personal contacts. Direct contacts with prospective employers were also more important than job advertisements in Italy, France and Austria. In France one in ten graduates had found a job through a public job centre, elsewhere public employment services bear little importance. Private employment services have gained ground especially in the Netherlands, and also in England. One fifth of the graduates (22%) had spent at least some time studying or working abroad during their time in higher education. The connection between gaining experience abroad and finding employment in the future is clear. Among those who had spent time abroad during their studies, 18% opted for regular employment abroad, among other graduates the figure was no more than 5%. Nevertheless, student mobility and working abroad after graduation vary greatly between countries. Up to 38% of Dutch graduates had spent time abroad studying and working during their student days. In Spain, the figure is only 12% (Figure 4). In most countries, much of the experience gained abroad is constituted by work, but in Spain and Italy, and especially in Norway, students had mainly visited other countries for study purposes. The willingness to study abroad and the prospects of doing so, as well as the likelihood of graduates finding employment elsewhere than in their country of origin, vary between fields of study. Humanities and business administration students are relatively eager to gain experience abroad, education and natural sciences students less so. On the other hand, engineering students are more internationally oriented in Finland and Sweden, especially if compared to Italy, England and Norway, where engineering students were far less mobile than students in these countries on average. Humanities and business administration graduates also found employment abroad more often than others; education, health care and law graduates were below the mean value. Norwegian, Spanish, Italian and German graduates have made little use of the experience they have gained abroad during their studies, if this is measured in terms of the numbers employed abroad. The Dutch were eager to work abroad whilst students; however, the number of Dutch graduates working abroad was not very high. The English in particular, but also Swedish students were relatively likely to work abroad after graduation. The Relevance of Education in Working Life In our analysis of the significance of a university degree in the world of work, we have taken the prevailing labour market and employment situation in each country as a given feature. Table IV summarises the main activities in the initial phase of graduates careers (about four years after completion of the degree) as they have described it themselves. Our primary focus is on how far graduates have been able to build a career through regular employment, and to what extent they have had to take up further training. In this kind of comparative study France is a rather difficult case. Those French short degree graduates that were known to have continued studying were already omitted when the data were collected. Nevertheless, many French masters graduates also seem to continue studying: only 45% of them launched their career by finding regular employment. From the results we can extract a Nordic model in which graduates are

96 O. Kivinen & J. Nurmi FIG. 4. University students studying and working abroad, and graduate employment abroad.

Higher Education and Work 97 largely ready to start a career immediately upon graduation. In Finland, for example, the gradual accumulation of professional competencies has become embedded in university education. The degree provides the graduate with a status of competence that is also acknowledged by the professions, and therefore no additional education and training is needed to gain entry into the labour market. Hands-on experience and relevant contacts have often been gained whilst studying. In addition, universities have a strict numerus clausus system that is used to regulate the supply of trained workforce. England and the Netherlands come fairly close to the Nordic model, although an irregular working career is relatively common in Holland. Italy, Spain and France form a clear group of their own: in these countries one in every three graduates has to begin his or her working career by seeking additional qualifications. So what kind of work do students graduating from different disciplines end up in? To what extent do graduates eventually work in their own field, or is the discipline they study irrelevant to work? [2]. In an examination of the correspondence between education and work, it makes sense to focus on those graduates who work in professional positions according to the job classification [3]. Finland, Spain, Norway and Germany seem to produce graduates for a niche labour market (Figure 5). These countries differ most sharply from the Netherlands, where the field of study seems to have little to do with employment, and France, where the proportion of graduates who have found employment in a close field is exceptionally high. The high proportion of graduates finding jobs in a foreign field in the Netherlands can be attributed, among other things, to the majority of law and humanities graduates and one third of social science graduates going to work in business and commerce. On the other hand, 44% of business administration graduates have ended up working in technology, which is a larger proportion than the figure for those who have found employment in their own field, i.e. commerce and business administration. The situation in France is somewhat different in that most French humanities graduates work in teaching (as in many other countries) and natural scientists mainly in the field of technology. Business administration graduates, on the other hand, work more often in technology or as experts in public administration than in business. Social scientists and law graduates have also found employment in many different fields. There are, of course, certain traits that these European countries share in common, especially in more professionally oriented fields. In all countries education graduates have mainly entered the teaching profession (between 93% in Finland and 57% in the Netherlands). Most health care graduates eventually end up working in this field, although in Italy about half of health care graduates worked in science-related jobs and only 42% in their own field. In other countries the figures range from 94% in Germany to 75% in Finland and the Netherlands (in Finland the remaining 25% mainly worked as health care teachers). The proportion of engineering students finding employment in their own field varies between 86% in England and 66% in Austria (where 15% of them worked in teaching). In most countries law graduates worked mainly in their own field, from 80% in Germany to 69% in Finland and Austria. However, in Norway half of them worked in social science related jobs (nevertheless in public administration), and in the Netherlands as large a proportion as 74% of law graduates worked in business, and in France 36%. Another aspect of the relevance of education concerns the correspondence between job requirements and the competencies acquired by graduates during their studies (Kivinen & Nurmi, 2002). This we have measured on the basis of graduates assessments of how far they have been able to apply the knowledge and skills they have learned at university. Examined on a standardised scale of nought to one ( not at all greatly ), the average responses for the

98 O. Kivinen & J. Nurmi TABLE IV. Main activity of university graduates in various countries during the first four years after graduation Italy Spain France Austria Germany Netherlands England Finland Sweden Norway Regular employment 39 28 35 67 63 70 74 76 86 82 Regular empl. and additional training 8 14 15 6 3 1 2 4 Additional training 33 33 39 12 12 5 11 6 5 5 Other 20 25 10 16 22 25 13 14 9 12

Higher Education and Work 99 FIG. 5. Correspondence between educational and employment structures: graduate employment within one s own field or other fields in various countries.

100 O. Kivinen & J. Nurmi different countries vary considerably. In the Nordic countries the mean is over 0.70: in Norway, Finland and Sweden graduates really feel that their education prepares them well for the niche labour market and their education matches work requirements relatively well. The opposite pole in this examination is France, where the mean is 0.49. In other countries the mean varies between 0.57 and 0.65. French graduates often find employment in other fields than their own, which is also reflected in assessments of the correspondence between qualifications and work. French graduates feel that they can apply only part of the competencies provided by education. Nevertheless, the low structural correspondence between education and working life does not prevent Dutch graduates from feeling that their education is quite relevant. The assessments of Dutch graduates come pretty close to the European average, even though only 27% of them (as compared to 19% of French graduates) felt that the education they had received was the most suitable or the only possible one in their field of employment. In Finland, Sweden and Italy, the corresponding proportion was over one half. Discussion National traditions and institutionalised practices notwithstanding, there is in Europe a common trend towards an expansion of higher education beyond its traditional clientele and professions. However this is not happening at the same time and the same pace in all countries. The problems thrown up by the growing demand and the expansion have evoked different kinds of responses; national solutions are tied to prior decisions taken at educational institutions, they depend on traditions, the long history of how various institutions have been formed, and local practices. The role of university education in the social division of labour, social and cultural reproduction, and industrial production in any given country depends, among other things, on the division of labour between various educational sectors and forms of education as well as on how the connections between education and work have been shaped by state control or the results of the struggle over status between various professions. The supply of university-trained workforce in various fields of study varies from country to country. In some countries universities produce large numbers of qualified personnel for the various sectors of the welfare state, in others the universities mission is more clearly limited to the reproduction of scientific and economic élites. Moreover, we found in our study that not only the formally stated length of a degree course but also the actual amount of time spent studying (net duration) differ significantly more between countries than between various fields of study. The duration of studies does not depend as much on the requirements of each field of study or each profession as on the style of study in different countries and the local labour market. The way in which graduates experience and evaluate the quality of their education also varies more between countries than it does between various fields of study. Even though there are certain common cultural features that tie in with the professional nature of each field of study, the experiences of European higher education graduates with regard to the characteristics and quality of their education depend first and foremost on the country in which they have received their education. There are marked differences in the extent to which graduates are seen to be ready to enter the professional labour market. In some countries degrees serve as credentials for certain positions, and people enter the labour market while they are still students; in others, an academic degree will often need to be complemented by specific qualifications that are suited for the labour market.

Higher Education and Work 101 As regards the correspondence between education and work, our results show that in the Nordic countries it is apparently quite easy for graduates to find employment in their own field, whereas in the Netherlands other factors also came into play besides the field of study. Correspondingly, Nordic graduates felt their education provided the skills and competencies they needed at work, whereas in other countries, especially France, this was less often the case. The EU s policy of unification and streamlining is clearly at variance with the diversity and multiplicity we are seeing in the field of higher education and graduate employment. Many of the transactions that have, over time, shaped the relationship between education and the world of work are not the result of systematic policy-making, nor can they be changed at one fell swoop through decision-making aimed, for instance, at the creation of a common European Higher Education Area, for instance. The opposite pole to pan-european higher education policy comprises the constant functional and institutional diversification of mass higher education and the persistent cultural differences and regional inequality within Europe. Policy becomes, at a programme level, more standardised and unified at the same time as the demand for education continues to diversify, and as people and institutions remain as divergent as ever. It is of course possible to create a harmonised degree system with the same titles and formal lengths throughout. It is also possible to promote student mobility further, even though European students were a highly mobile group even in the 1990s. However, we have to remember that education policy has very limited scope and effect in comparison to the state of affairs in the world at large. This must surely have become clear during the last grand project of educational policy that was aimed at promoting equality. Certainly education policy interventions can help to promote greater equality in educational opportunities, but it cannot remove the inequality that is rooted in social background (home and family) or in status differences in the labour market and working life (Kivinen et al., 2001). Let us not forget, however, the enormous symbolic significance of visions like the common European Higher Education Area. The attempt to achieve policy convergence is a sign of optimism among educational policy-makers, as is their eagerness to promote European competitiveness vis-à-vis the rest of the world. However such moves may also be growing out of a sense of helplessness, a feeling that the only way to overcome the shortcomings of national policies is to resort to transnationally unified policy models. To justify their national implementation, a common vocabulary has to be adopted to define, for instance, what kind of human resources a knowledge-based economy requires of the learning society (see Ball, 2000, 2001). Although the language of politics is becoming trans-nationalised, people, cultures and national practices are still different and distinctive. It is predicted that nation-states will be losing much of their political strength with the process of globalisation (or European integration). However, it is equally possible that toughening international competition will lead to nationally distinctive policy models in key areas that concern every citizen, such as education and training (Bildung). State intervention is needed, particularly where there is a desire to shift the focus from expansive aims emphasising high volumes to solutions guaranteeing high quality. To the extent that universities fulfil their mission of training people and of cultivating critical, self-confident and competent graduates, they will be capable of taking up any challenge that lies ahead, and national and transnational civil servants will not need to worry too much about organisational solutions that may artificially link education and work. The most fundamental requirement is that for enlightened citizens who are capable of assuming