Higher education is considered to have an important role in equipping graduates with an ability to contribute to the knowledge-based economy. On the European Un-ion level the idea is to tighten the bonds between educational systems and the labour market. In building the European Higher Education Area the employability of graduates is given a strong emphasis (London communiqué 2007). The massification of higher education has led to a situation where growing number of graduates are facing difficulties in finding a graduate job. They are com-peting with each other as well with those who are less educated to find a suitable job. According to Grupp & Lazerson (2005), students come to universities believing that they can exchange a degree for professional status. So students come to study in or-der to better secure their position in the labour market. As long as the labour market was expanding and there was a growing need for highly educated experts, it was relatively easy for a graduate to find a suitable occupation. But when the expansion phase is over, the employment of new graduates becomes more complicated. Several authors (e.g. Harvey 2000, Paul & Murdoch 2000, Appold 2005, Lindberg 2005) have come to the same conclusion as Smith did already in 1986, "a college education was once sufficient for the attainment of a good job. It is clearly no longer sufficient, but at the same time, it is all the more necessary." There have been many signs of growing insecurity in working life (e.g. Bauman 2000, Beck 1992), which are reflected in employment of higher education graduates as well. All of them cannot expect anymore to transfer fluently from education to permanent full-time employment (e.g. Allen & Van der Velen 2007, Alves 2005, Teihcler 2007, Arnesen 2000, Schomburg & Teihcler 2006). In this symposium we will explore the employment of higher education graduates from different view-points in several European countries Finland, Germany, Great-Britain, Italy, Portu-gal, Spain and Sweden. We ask: What the employment phenomena is all about? What kind of similarities and differences there are in graduates’ placement in the world of work in different countries? When the labour markets as well as the educa-tional systems vary in different countries, how we can overcome these differences and increase our understanding of the phenomena?

We use various research methods that include quantitative as well as qualitative methods. With this methodological triangulation we will be able to discuss the bene-fits of different types of research methodology. When using quantitative research methods we will analyze the data primarily by descriptive statistical methods, e.g. tables, graphs and most common measures of central tendency and variation. More-over, the basic associations between the employment phenomenon and the back-ground variables are analysed with the help of chi-square tests and correlations.

The research project is clarifying the relationship between higher education and the world of work in different European countries. By bringing together researchers from different countries and from different approaches we will be able to increase our understanding of the employment phenomena. The symposium will provide an opportunity for employment researchers to exchange ideas. Different research pro-jects will rely on different frameworks and this will enable us to critically reflect those frameworks and also to think what is their contribution to understanding of the phenomena. Looking to the future of the professional profiles, which are being designed within the European Higher Education Area, the information generated from this symposium would benefit and improve the quality of training provided in European universities.