The effects of higher education programme characteristics on allocation and performance of the graduates: a European view

This paper provides new insight into the role of higher educational programmes in allocation and performance during the transition from education to the labour market. Using a unique data set on the labour market situation of graduates in nine European countries, we investigate the significance of five characteristics of the higher education programmes: (1) The academic versus discipline-specific character of the competencies generated by the curriculum; (2) the level of standardization of the generated competencies; (3) the extent by which working and learning activities are combined, (4) the level of internationalization of the educational programme and (5) the extent to which a programme provides exclusive entrance to particular occupations.First, our results reveal in particular the importance of the competence orientation of the education programme. Allocation of graduates to occupations takes place in a manner that yields a situation wherein the competence orientation of the education is in congruence with the competence orientation of the occupation. Second, we show that the standardization of the education programme with respect to the competencies students acquire plays an important role in both informing the employer, and reducing the adjustment costs. By that, it allows for a higher remuneration of the graduates.