I will propose a paper on how policies on employability within higher education affect the valuation of higher education. Employability and a notion of labour market relevance of higher education have become increasingly important drivers of new educational policies, rules and regulations for universities and other institutions of higher education in Denmark. The purpose of a university degree was in 2005 in relation to the Bologna process described as “preparing for the labour market, democratic awareness, personal development and the development of a broad, advanced knowledge base” (Sarauw 2012: 25). In a Danish context, this has increasingly been narrowed down to focus exclusively on preparing students for the labour market (Sarauw 2012).

The study will examine two policies that both define value of higher education in terms of employability and relevance for the labour market. The first one is the policy initiative called ‘dimensioning’, involving the reduction of student enrolment numbers within certain study programmes on the basis of employment figures. In this policy, the employability agenda materializes as employment figures translated into an enrolment ‘ceiling’. The second policy is the main funding scheme for higher education called ‘taximeter of education’. According to this policy, higher education institutions receive funding according to the number of exams passed and timely graduations, multiplied by a ‘taximeter’ rate that differs across study programmes. The rates are, according to the ministry website, fixed by a political decision on the basis of macroeconomic needs and a cost estimate. Here the employability agenda is subtle, connected to the notion of macroeconomic needs. Both policies affect the financial resources of study programmes, since the enrolment number has an impact on taximeter funding. The analysis will focus on university degrees within the humanities, as they are facing ‘dimensioning’ to a high extent and receive the lowest rates of ‘taximeter’ funding.

The Danish case is interesting, because the costs of higher education in Denmark are almost solely covered by tax money, which makes the question of the value of higher education a public concern. This makes the Danish case different from i.e. the UK, where higher education is a private investment to some extent made by the individual student (Tomlinson 2012: 409). The employability research in the UK is massive compared to employability research in other countries. The proposed paper will look into the Danish case and compare the results with previous research in the UK context to expose how differences in the funding of higher education relates to different valuation practices.

I draw on a notion of ‘valuation’ as an active process performed by various actors. In this perspective, value emerges through performative actions, where assessment or evaluation of the object and co-production of the object through valuation as a form of labelling happens simultaneously and momentarily (Lamont 2012; Muniesa 2011; Antal, Hutter, and Stark 2015; Dussauge, Helgesson, and Lee 2015). It is a central point in my use of the concept of value not to define it a priori as economic value or social values. Instead different categories of value like trust, glory or morality – what Latour and Lépinay call valuemeters – will emerge from my analysis (Latour and Lépinay 2009). My analysis will thus display valuation practices in the production of higher education from a national political perspective, and thereby unfold the different valuemeters involved in the two policies in question, and how they are entangled and conflicting.

Drawing on these understandings and theoretical framework, my research questions are: What valuation practices are embedded within higher education policies of employability? And how do these valuation practices affect the valuation of university degrees in humanities?

Antal, Ariane Berthoin, Michael Hutter, and David Stark. 2015. Moments of Valuation : Exploring Sites of Dissonance. First edition ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Dussauge, Isabelle, Claes-Fredrik Helgesson, and Francis Lee 1974-. 2015. Value Practices in the Life Sciences and Medicine. First Edition ed. Oxford, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press. Lamont, Michèle. 2012. "Toward a Comparative Sociology of Valuation and Evaluation." Annual Review of Sociology 38 (1): 201-221. doi:10.1146/annurev-soc-070308-120022. Latour, Bruno and Vincent Antonin Lépinay. 2009. The Science of Passionate Interests : An Introduction to Gabriel Tarde's Economic Anthropology. Paradigm ; 37. [Économie, science des intérêts passionnés]. Chicago: Prickly Paradigm Press. Muniesa, Fabian. 2011. "A Flank Movement in the Understanding of Valuation." The Sociological Review 59: 24-38. doi:10.1111/j.1467-954X.2012.02056.x. Sarauw, Laura Louise. 2012. "Qualifications Frameworks and their Conflicting Social Imaginaries of Globalisation." Learning and Teaching 5 (3). doi:10.3167/latiss.2012.050302. Tomlinson, Michael. 2012. "Graduate Employability: A Review of Conceptual and Empirical Themes." Higher Education Policy 25 (4). doi:10.1057/hep.2011.26.