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Higher Education Policy

, Volume 29, Issue 1, pp 109–129 | Cite as

Graduates’ Perceptions about Labour Market Competencies: Does the Type of Institution and Programme Make a Difference?

  • Pedro Teixeira
  • Pedro Nuno Teixeira
  • Sónia Cardoso
  • Maria João Rosa
  • António Magalhães
Article
First Online:

Abstract

Over the past decades a continuous trend of expansion has led to the emergence of massified higher education systems that have tried to accommodate a growing diversity of students and demands through diverse institutional profiles and program supply. Recent studies have also pointed out to a growing diversity in the transitions and integration of those expanded cohorts of graduates in the labour market. Hence, it is relevant to assess to what extent the growing institutional and programme diversification may be associated with different profiles of graduates and the multidimensional set of acquired competencies throughout higher education. In this paper are analysed graduates’ perceptions about the competencies acquired through HE vis-à-vis those required by the labour market and search for differences in those perceptions according to type of institution (public and private, university and vocational) and type of degree. The analysis is based on the Portuguese experience that combines high labour market benefits for graduates with a rapid process of massification.

Keywords

mass higher education diversity labour market graduates competencies 
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Notes

Acknowledgements

This research has been funded by FCT – The Portuguese National Science Foundation through the projects PEst-OE/CED/UI0757/2013 and EXCL/IVC-PEC/0789/2012.

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Copyright information

© International Association of Universities 2015

Authors and Affiliations

  • Pedro Teixeira
    • 1
  • Pedro Nuno Teixeira
    • 2
  • Sónia Cardoso
    • 3
  • Maria João Rosa
    • 4
  • António Magalhães
    • 5
  1. 1.CIPES â Centre for Research in Higher Education PoliciesMatosinhosPortugal
  2. 2.CIPES – Centre for Research in Higher Education Policies and Faculty of Economics, University of Porto
  3. 3.CIPES and A3ES – Agency for Accreditation and Quality Assessment in Higher EducationPortugal
  4. 4.CIPES and Department of EconomicsManagement, and Industrial Engineering – University of Aveiro
  5. 5.CIPES and Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Porto

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