This paper locates digital social production (or unpaid participation on the Web) within a broader discussion about demonstrating job readiness in a wired world. It does not assume that the recruitment marketplace is a level playing field for graduates. Nor does it assume that a single additional graduate attribute, in the form of contributing to…

Science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) is acknowledged as one of the key drivers of technological innovation. Malaysian women join the educational pipeline as equals to their male counterparts. Nevertheless, women are persistently under-represented in technology and engineering, but over-represented in other STEM fields. Using…

Universities have responded to the expansion of higher education and restructuring of the labour market by redesigning curriculum to better emphasise transferable skills and embed pedagogies that contribute to graduate employability. However, the ways in which universities judge and share achievement still provides poor evidence of what students…

This paper analyses the patterns of international student enrolments in Portugal to understand what makes Portuguese higher education attractive. Employing a database of enrolments in Portuguese higher education institutions in 2017/2018, it uses correspondence analysis to characterise the flows of students coming from different countries and the…

During course selection, students have to consider many criteria to arrive at the best course to study at the institution that provides the best fit for their aspirations. However, a central issue that reduces the clarity of course consideration and results in suboptimal decisions is the failure of introspection. While people can usually describe…

This study analyses longitudinal student data to determine the influence of social class, academic performance and other individual factors such as gender, ethnicity and age on entry on the possibility of obtaining highly paid placements in elite professions. Focusing on subject-relevant placements, the findings here strongly support the…

Recent West German surveys reveal five indicators (recruitment, age, marital and family status, jobs, and housing) that suggest the university is losing its central role in student life. (MSE)

The extent to which financial aid has influenced higher education enrollment in Sweden is examined, drawing on data about four cohorts of college students from 1970 to 1990. Results suggest that financial aid has had a significant positive impact on enrollment and affected enrollment differences between socioeconomic groups and genders.…

Universities are increasingly engaging with non-academic professionals in facilitating performance outcomes, reaffirming themselves as purposive organisations, i.e. institutions with the ability to organise strategically in the pursuit of goals and standards. However, there is little empirical evidence for the impact of professional staff on…

In this study, we analyse the relationship between competition and programmatic diversification in 75 Italian universities from the academic years of 2003/2004 to 2011/2012. Results show that local competition, rather than national competition, influences programmatic diversification. The relationship between local competition and programmatic…

The spread of the neo-liberal ideology internationally has encouraged increased marketisation of higher education systems right around the world. With marketisation promoting competition, efficiency and revenue generation, many countries have begun to recruit more foreign students. Higher education has moved towards becoming a profitable commodity…

Recruiting high-caliber individuals into education programs in higher education institutions to train them to be tomorrow's educators/teachers has been a perennial challenge. Students in education programs are found to be in general lower in academic standing than their counterparts in other fields, reflecting a seemingly distressing phenomenon of…

In a context of increasing competition for students, admission conditions have been used as an instrument in a strategy of differentiation. Such a strategy is guided by short-run concerns, that is, the immediate need to attract more students. This article takes a longer term view, by examining graduates' employability. The authors find that…