Patterns of Institutional Influences on Entering the Labor Market

Author(s):

Veronika Bocsi(presenting / submitting)Mihály Fónai(presenting)

Conference:

ECER 2016

Network:

22. Research in Higher Education

Format:

Paper

Session Information

22 SES 09 C, Educational Innovation & Training

Paper Session

Time:

2016-08-25

13:30-15:00

Room:

NM-J109

Chair:

Carolina Guzmán-Valenzuela

Contribution

The main purpose of our analysis is to analyze the graduated students’ labour market chances based on the numbers of students of the biggest Hungarian university. In addition the research would like to get an answer to the main research question, namely how this field is influenced by institutional effects. Mapping insitutional influences has been conducted by the system of the university faculties.

However, this university can be found in one of the most disadvantaged region of the country, which influences the labour-market chances of the students significantly. Debrecen University can be regarded as a regional institution rather than a university with a national enrollment. (Kozma 2002). The socio-cultural indicators of the university students lag behind the family background of the students living in the capital. The rate of the non-traditional students coming from this region is high (Pusztai 2011, Fónai 2012). Regional inequities can also be seen in income as well: they are significantly lower in this region than the salaries of the central and western part of Hungary (Novák 2010).

Hungarian higher education turned to be mass education in the 1990s (Archer 1988), and parallelly with it higher educational institutions were pushed toward maketization (Bok 2003, Susanti 2011) and utilitarian approach. Hungarian and international research studies show that students’ expectations are changing similarly (Harland és Pickering 2011, Veroszta 2010, Bocsi 2015) and students’ relation to education can be more characterized by a kind of „economic citizen” approach. The perception of the closer relation between marketization, utilitarianism and higher education cannot be declared clearly as a positive phenomenon even in professional literature (Graham 2005, Harland és Pickering 2011, Tasker és Packham 1993). The question is how the different insitutional units are able to meet these expectations and if their self-image matches the opinion of the graduated students.

Institutional influences can be interpreted as a complex concept. The ranking process used by Quacquarelli Symonds is extremely complex that is based on various areas to include the institution, staff, students and academic disciplines. Obtainable skills and abilities encountered at the university are played out in both formal and informal scenes. All of them impact students’ effectiveness (Pusztai 2015) and form foundations for employment.

Hungarian graduate traking system research studies investigated the objective and subjective indicators of the success in labour market. Employment status, position in the work-place and income were investigated among the objective indicators. The subjective indicators measured how qualification fits with work and how satisfaction fits with components of work Hungarian results indicate that demographic, social and educational background together affects how succesful recent graduates can be in the labour market.(Veroszta 2010).

Skills, developed by mass univesities are swifting towards practice and it meets the expectations of the students as well. From among the 15 faculties of he examined university there are faculties with higher and lower prestige – the institutional hierarchy of the faculties can be seen in the ranking of the students and in their self-evaluation as well (Fónai 2013, Ceglédi – Fónai 2013). The hierarchy (ranking) within the university (the rank of the faculties, branches, professions) influence both the labor market potential of the graduates and the overall effect of the institution on employment opportunities, however, this influence is not always linear. Students graduating from faculties with lower prestige (ranking) often have better labor market possibilities. Analysis of the faculties provides for the examination of other factors that might influence the employment potential of graduates in addition to the social composition (the combination of these effects is the “institutional influence”).

Method

The analysis utilized two different data sources the first was based on data collected in the Graduate Tracking System (GTS). Within the GTS is an online query of students who have graduated from Hungarian higher educational institutions since 2010. A sub-sample containing from the 2011 GTS database of 622 persons from the University of Debrecen has used. The other used data source was a research study based on personal interviews conducted between 2007 and 2010 and coordinated by the Graduate Tracking System of the University of Debrecen. This study contained 1258 individuals and was completed in 2011. Subsamples of the university faculties were used to measure and analyze the institutional effect. Due to the low cell frequencies the results of nine faculties were analyzed with respect to the first database while in the second case the results of 11 faculties were utilized. The two identified data sources were critical to the research because they were designed and investigated important areas of institutional effectiveness in different ways and with different structures (for example the time needed for finding a job). The characteristics of each faculty have been mapped with the help of the following independent variables: gender, type of residence at the age of 14, the consolidated variable of the parents’ education. In addition, the variable of the age and variables associated with the institution (full time or part time course, state or self-financed form of education) were consolidated and used as independent variables. If the graduate worked, if the answer was positive then in what position (senior, middle-management position, employee, etc.), how much time he needed to find a job, how he managed to find a workplace were examined as dependent variables. The study also looked at post-graduate education to determine if there is an institutional effect on the graduates reflected in continuing their education and if they continued their education in the university where they graduated. Two areas were examined using Likert-scales and were included in the research as independent variables. One of them was satisfaction with their education (e.g.: how much the students were satisfied with the level of the practicum or with the assistance in finding a job after graduation). For nominal and ordinal variables cross tabulations and the chi-square statistic was used. For interval scales analysis of variance was used as well as factor analysis.

Expected Outcomes

The first step of the analysis was to explore the characteristics of the university faculties. This was necessary because the consistency of the students (e.g. based on the parents’ level of education) and the characteristics of the education (the rate of full time and part time programs) fundamentally affect the chances of finding a job and the quality of employment. The effect of the university faculties obviously seems to be strong in the examined areas. In case of obtaining a workplace some typical „pathways” can be seen: in general medical training the relation system of the university seems to be strong, however, building a more conscious career can also be seen for faculties with economic profile (the increased role of executive search firms, career offices) Another aspect investigated was the amount of relationship (match) between the qualification provided by the faculty and work. Some faculties provide a qualification that directly matches work (Faculty of Medicine, Faculty of Health) and some (Faculty of Informatics) where the graduates work in diverse jobs and some (Faculty of Science and Technology) where graduates are the least likely to work in areas related to their original qualification. A profile of skills developed by the different faculties and departments can be created utilizing extracted factors. These profiles show what the graduates regard as important elements concerning the training by faculty (focused to labor-market output, practical, extra-curricular). An interesting finding is that students in units that have practical profiles characterize the “practical” factor score as negative. Analyzing the effect of faculty on facilitating employment, the strength of each unit can also be seen. Furthermore, the distance between the ideal-typed self-image of the faculties and the pattern developed by student opinion can be shown. These differences are the main results of the research.

References

Archer, Margaret (1988): Az oktatási rendszerek expanziója. (Expansion of Education Systems). Oktatáskutató és Fejlesztő Intézet: Budapest. Bocsi, Veronika (2015): A felsőoktatás értékmetszetei (Value Secions of Higher Education). Új Mandátum: Budapest. Új Mandátum: Budapest Bok, Derek (2003): Universities in Marketplace. The Commercialization of Higher Education. Princeton University Press: Princeton and Oxford. Ceglédi, Tímea – Fónai, Mihály (2013): Who Enters? Former Achievement and Social Background of Students in Colleges for Advanced Studies. In: György, Zoltán – Nagy, Zoltán (eds): Students in a Cross-Border Region. Higher Education for Regional Social Cohesion. Orade: University of Oradea Press. pp. 107-131. Fónai, Mihály (2012): The Relationship Between Socio-economic Status and Educational Progress. In: Kozma, Tamás – Bernáth, Krisztina (ed): Higher Education in the Romania – Hungary Cross-Border Area. Oradea - Debrecen: Partium Press–CHERD, pp. 13-32. Fónai Mihály (2013): Az intézményi habitus eltérései és a karok státusza (Differences of the institutional habitus and the status of faculties). In: Andl Helga – Molnár-Kovács Zsófia (eds.): School in social space and time 2011-2012. volume II. . Pécs: Pécsi Tudományegyetem „Oktatás és társadalom” Neveléstudományi Doktori iskola. pp. 237-247. Graham, Gordon (2005): The Institution of Intellectual Values. Realism and Idealism in Higher Education. Inprint Academic: Charlottesville. Harland, Tony – Pickering, Neil (2011): Values in Higher Education Teaching. Routledge: London – New York. Kozma Tamás (2002): Regionális egyetem (Regional University). Oktatáskutató Intézet: Budapest. Novák Géza (2010): A foglalkoztatottság és a munkanélküliség regionális különbségei. (Regional Differences of Employment and Unemployment). Központi Statisztikai Hivatal: Budapest. Regional Differences of Employment and Unemployment. Pusztai Gabriella (2011): A láthatatlan kéztől a baráti kezekig (From Invisible Hands to Hands of Friends). Új Mandátum Kiadó: Budapest. Pusztai Gabriella (2015): Pathways to Success in Higher Education. Peter Lang: Frankfurt am Main. Tasker, Mary – Packham, David (1993): Industry and Higher Education: A Question of Values. Studies in Higher Education. 18:2. 127–138. Susanti, Dewi (2011): Privatisation and Marketisation of Higher Education in Indonesia: The Challenge for Equal Access and Academic Values. Higer Education. 61:2. 209–218. Veroszta Zsuzsanna (2010a): Felsőoktatási értékek – hallgatói szemmel. A felsőoktatás küldetésére vonatkozó hallgatói értékstruktrúrák feltárárása (Higher Educational Values – through Students’ Eyes). PhD Thesis. Corvinus University of Budapest, Sociological Doctoral School: Budapest. Veroszta Zsuzsanna (2010b): A munkaerő-piaci sikeresség dimenziói frissdiplomások körében. (Dimensions of success in labour market among recent graduates). In: Garai Orsolya, Horváth Tamás, Kiss László, Szép Lilla, Veroszta Zsuzsanna (Eds.) (2010): Graduate Career Tracking IV. New Graduates.Budapest: Educatio Társadalmi Szolgáltató Nonprofit Kft. Felsőoktatási Osztály, 11-36.

Author Information

Veronika Bocsi (presenting / submitting)

University of Debrecen

Faculty of Child and Adult Education Department of Social Sciences

Mikepércs

Mihály Fónai (presenting)

University of Debrecen

Faculty of Law

Debrecen

Search the ECER Programme

Search for keywords and phrases in "Text Search"
Restrict in which part of the abstracts to search in "Where to search"
Search for authors and in the respective field.
For planning your conference attendance you may want to use the conference app, which will be issued some weeks before the conference
If you are a session chair, best look up your chairing duties in the conference system (Conftool) or the app.