Generic skills are a central outcome of higher education and are increasingly important for civic engagement and changing labour market demands. While profession-oriented study programmes, such as teacher education, medicine, or law are known for their high labour market usability, insight into learning opportunities for generic skills is limited. This contribution compares learning opportunities for generic skills in teacher education with those in medicine and law. The study finds that teacher education may offer higher learning opportunities for generic skills compared to medicine and law. The analysis is based on an instrument designed to capture such opportunities, consisting of 27 items grouped into ten scales, which was implemented in a student survey. The analytical sample includes students from teacher education (N = 880), medicine (N = 444), and law (N = 276). Variance analysis with Scheff & eacute; post-hoc tests show teacher education students report significantly more opportunities than law and medicine students in five of ten areas, namely 'digital work'; 'planning and organizing'; 'communication and cooperation'; 'promoting others' and 'interculturality'. The results indicate that teacher education programmes foster the development of generic skills. The findings, along with their implications and limitations, are discussed.
Global university rankings (GURs) have become a prominent feature of contemporary higher education, yet little is known about how they are represented and discussed in the media. This paper examines the media coverage of GURs in three major Italian newspapers (Corriere della Sera, La Repubblica, and Il Sole 24 Ore) between 2004 and 2023. Combining longitudinal content analysis with regression models, the study investigates patterns of media attention across different rankings and assesses whether journalistic coverage reflects critiques raised in the academic literature. The findings show that media coverage is highly selective: attention to the QS ranking has increased over time, while coverage of THE and ARWU has declined. Critical engagement remains limited, with only a small share of articles raising concerns, primarily related to methodological issues, while broader impacts such as institutional isomorphism or stratification are largely absent. The results suggest that the observed patterns of media visibility may be interpreted in light of an interaction between the characteristics of ranking outputs, institutional communication practices, and journalistic routines, contributing to rankings being treated as routine reference points in public discourse.
Drawing on Social Cognitive Career Theory, this article explores how higher education supports or hinders career development through the reflections of graduates with disabilities from Israel, Italy, and Spain. The study employed a qualitative phenomenological design, based on in-depth interviews with 45 university graduates, to capture how participants make meaning of their academic experiences, institutional supports and barriers, and transitions into employment. Data were analysed combining inductive thematic analysis with a theory-informed framework to interpret patterns related to skills development, goals, contextual supports, and career outcomes. The findings show that while higher education plays a central role in fostering personal skills, graduates often encounter a gap between academic learning and workplace demands and receive limited institutional support during the transition to employment. Although accommodations often enable degree completion, they are less consistently linked to career guidance, work-based learning, or post-graduation support. By foregrounding graduates lived experiences across three national contexts, the study reconceptualises career development as a formative process embedded throughout the academic journey, shifting responsibility from individual adaptation to institutional accountability for equitable employment outcomes. It amplifies students' articulated needs and offers practical, evidence-informed recommendations for strengthening inclusive career support in higher education and across the transition to employment.
PhD careers have diversified over the last decade. Working in academia has become a less prominent career target for PhD graduates, and variations in careers across disciplines have grown. The private sector is the largest employer of STEM PhDs outside academia, whereas the public and para-public sectors primarily employ HSS PhDs. Academic careers emphasise research-focused tasks and scholarly outputs, while non-academic careers prioritise interdisciplinary collaboration, innovation, and practical application of research skills. Limited research on PhD careers beyond academia leaves doctoral educators ill-prepared to support PhD candidates pursuing non-academic careers. This study contributes to the literature by providing a comparative analysis of academic and non-academic career trajectories of PhD holders using national cohort data from Finland. By examining the employment status of PhD graduates, the sectors in which they work, and their job profiles, this study bridges gaps in the literature on PhD careers. The results of the study show that PhD holders often undertake expert-level tasks requiring advanced research skills. Academic roles typically align with research-intensive profiles, whereas non-academic roles emphasise multi-skilled profiles that demand broader competencies. These insights contribute to a research-based understanding of PhD career paths and support tailored career guidance for PhD candidates during doctoral education.
Research on first-year university students often treats entrants as a homogeneous group, overlooking disciplinary and admission-related differences in students' motives for attending university and study-related burnout. The study compares law and humanities students in a Finnish research-intensive university following a national admissions reform. The participants were 433 first-year students (177 law, 256 humanities). Data were collected via a questionnaire at the beginning of the studies and linked with register-based data on admission pathway, grade point average (GPA), and accumulated credits. Two-way ANOVA and regression analysis were used to analyze the data. The results showed disciplinary differences in motives for attending university, dimensions of study-related burnout and predictive patterns for learning outcomes. Law students reported stronger careerist-materialist motives, while humanities students reported higher default motives and cynicism. There was an interaction effect on disciplines and admission pathways. In humanities students, burnout risk negatively predicted both GPA and study progress, whereas in law students, a humanitarian motive was a negative predictor of first-year outcomes. There were no differences in first-year outcomes between admission pathways in either discipline. These findings highlight the importance of disciplinary context when examining students' starting points and academic success.
Higher education institutions (HEIs) are increasingly recognised for their roles in regional innovation ecosystems (RIEs). In addition to traditional roles related to education and research, HEIs also advance a third mission to contribute to society. However, innovation models predominantly focus on academic universities, overlooking the practice-based and regionally embedded Universities of Applied Sciences (UAS). Moreover, there is limited understanding about the roles related to the third mission of UAS in the context of RIEs. This paper aims to identify the roles of UAS related to the third mission by analysing knowledge transfer interactions (KTI) with other actors in RIEs. The research utilises a qualitative case study approach. Primary data are gathered through semi-structured interviews and a focus group session with stakeholders in the healthcare sector across different rural and urbanised regions of a selected UAS. Findings demonstrate several derived roles related to the third mission of UAS in RIEs, including relational, connector, facilitator, and supportive roles, accompanying different types of KTI. Several factors, including firm size, regional context, and proximity dimensions, influence KTI. UAS can fulfil diverse roles to enhance KTI with targeted management strategies to strengthen their third mission in the region.
Universities are increasingly tasked with addressing societal challenges beyond their traditional roles of teaching and research. While researchers' engagement in knowledge transfer activities has steadily increased over the years, the specific ways different disciplines shape this engagement remain underexplored. Most studies only provide a general comparison between the field of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, and the field of social sciences and humanities, overlooking discipline-specific insights into transfer practices and constraints. These gaps raise questions about how diverse disciplines contribute to a university's third mission. Building on theories of disciplinary distinctions, this study uses a large-scale survey of professors with 3,914 completed questionnaires at 144 German universities. We developed and validated six types of knowledge transfer activities and examined the links between disciplines and individual engagement patterns. Our results indicate that hard-applied disciplines (e.g. engineering and computer science) excel in patenting and science-industry collaborations, while soft-applied fields (e.g. education and law) prioritise Experiential Learning and Societal Collaboration. Pure disciplines, e.g. humanities, focus more on Public Science Communication. These findings underscore the fact that distinct disciplinary cultures shape the extent and nature of knowledge transfer. Consequently, engagement in knowledge transfer activities should always be evaluated in a discipline-specific context.
It is a popular assumption that study abroad experience is valued by employers when recruiting. However, very few studies have investigated this expectation through experimental methods. In this paper, we present the results of a field experiment, whereby we submitted fictitious applications to 2100 job vacancies in Belgium, the Netherlands and Spain, systematically varying between study abroad and no study abroad experience. Our results indicate that for the three case countries, the assumed positive effect of study abroad on receiving an invitation for a job interview does not hold for Economics graduates. This raises significant avenues for future research.
Lectures remain contested in contemporary pedagogical discourse in Europe and beyond. Yet, they are omnipresent in universities. This historical review takes a genealogical approach to interrogate how the past may be influencing the present paradoxical framing of lecturing in higher education. Through a comparative lens and drawing on a multilingual corpus of sources, the paper explores how historical discourse portrays the development of lectures in medieval European universities and contemporaneous Chinese academies. In both contexts, lecturing is revealed to derive from religious templates and to establish an osmotic relationship with an underlying textual tradition. The comparison between the two contexts leads to the identification of four trajectories of descent highlighting the ritual dimension of the lecture, the unstable relationships between lecturers, students, and the underlying textual tradition, the lecture as a space that promotes different types of learning, and the cycling of content through texts and lectures. These lines may explain the persistence of lecturing and the ambivalence towards it in pedagogical discourse. The genealogical perspective provided by this paper contributes to the awareness of long-forgotten historical influences that still have a bearing on the practice of lecturing and need to be addressed in order to reform it.
This study investigates how national qualification frameworks in Denmark, Germany, France, and the UK reflect differing interpretations of higher education's societal role, with a focus on career perspectives. Using Hopmann's curriculum theory, which views curricula as expressions of political intention, cultural heritage, and social negotiation, and a comprehensive definition of career as a lifelong process, the analysis examines these frameworks. Findings reveal distinct national emphases: Germany and France prioritise professional integration, Denmark underscores academic progression, while the UK focuses on individual development. These contrasts illustrate varying conceptions of higher education - whether as a driver of professional readiness, academic knowledge, or personal growth. In addition, four distinct dimensions emerge from the analysis of the frameworks: the academic system, society/non-specialist, the student self, and the professional system. These dimensions are proposed as new subcategories for future curriculum studies adopting a career-theoretical perspective. By using both curriculum research and career theory, the study introduces an analytical lens for understanding how career development is embedded in policy documents. This approach offers insights for policymakers and institutions seeking to align higher education with evolving career structures and highlights opportunities for further research at programmatic and practical curriculum levels.
This article examines academic dishonesty among university students through the lens of pressure as a driving factor. While prior research has largely explored correlations between academic dishonesty and traits such as achievement goals, morality, or opportunity, fewer studies have focused on students' own reflections. The study is based on qualitative interviews with students at a Swedish university who had been formally sanctioned for academic dishonesty. Using composite narratives, we analyse their accounts to explore how different pressures accumulate and influence decision-making. The findings identify three overarching themes of pressure: Wellbeing, Academic Success, and Tradition. These themes further correspond to three broader sources: Internal, External Academic, and External Non-Academic pressures. This typology reveals the accumulative and multidimensional nature of student pressure and offers a conceptual framework to support institutional discussions and future research in this area.
Developing an academic identity is fundamental to becoming and evolving as a scholar. While prior research highlighted the influence of supervisors on students' academic identity, the specific mechanisms through which this influence unfolds remain underexplored. Given that meetings are key sites of sensemaking, this qualitative study investigates supervision meetings as spaces for academic identity construction. We interviewed twenty students at German universities. Using a critical realist framework and reflexive thematic analysis, we identified five themes: (1) meetings as structuring moments, (2) a hierarchical relationship, (3) feedback as a source of security and direction, (4) emancipation through competence and confidence, and (5) negotiating one's fit to academia. Our findings suggest that supervision meetings are important sites for academic identity. The study offers actionable insights for improving supervision practices in doctoral education.
Students' use of private supplementary tutoring (PST) is well documented in compulsory education and in admission-focused higher education research, yet PST use during higher education study-and students' motives for it-has been examined less systematically. This mixed-methods study examines Dutch university students' use of PST and their motives. An online survey of 227 students from two universities showed that 38% had used PST during their studies, mainly for course support. Principal components analysis identified four clusters of motives: improving study efficacy and efficiency, compensating for lack of skills or personal resources, overcoming language barriers, and obtaining extra guidance for difficult courses. Regression analyses indicated that students with a functional disability, bachelor students (rather than master or pre-master), and those with prior PST experience were more likely to report motives linked to lacking skills or personal resources, but not the other motive clusters. Qualitative findings deepened the picture by showing how students mainly use PST to avoid failure or delay when they experience a mismatch between study demands and available supports. Together, the findings clarify how and why PST functions as a parallel support resource in post-enrolment higher education, with implications for institutional support and equity.
The migration of highly skilled individuals is widely recognised as a fundamental factor in regional development. Extant studies mainly focus on graduates, while limited attention has been paid to doctoral graduates. This paper investigates the determinants of Italian PhD holders' migration, distinguishing between interregional migration and abroad migration, on three levels: micro, meso, and macro. The micro level refers to individual characteristics; the meso level is related to the PhD course and the university attended; and the macro level refers to regional characteristics. Data are retrieved from the 2018 retrospective ISTAT national survey. We implement an econometric approach based on a probit model (PM) and a conditional (recursive) mixed process on a multinomial probit regression model (cmp-MPM) & agrave; la Heckman, used to contemplate the specific conditions of respondents that migrate (PM) and migrate domestically and abroad (cmp-MPM), where the non-migrant category represents the base category that migrants confront. We contribute to the extant literature by highlighting the role of doctoral pathways, the completion of the doctorate and the quality of the university (meso level) in explaining PhD holder mobility, relevant for policymakers and universities.
Study choice is often conceptualized as a one-off event prior to enrolment, yet our findings show that this process continues throughout the first year. Drawing on interviews with first-year students in five Dutch bachelor programmes, we examined how they re-evaluated their initial study choice. Using the framework of five decisional tasks (orientation, self-exploration, in-depth exploration, broad exploration, and commitment), two ideal-typical patterns were identified to describe differences in students' re-evaluation process. A certainty pattern characterized students who engaged primarily in self- and in-depth exploration to strengthen commitment. A doubt pattern involved students who re-engaged in broad exploration. Students reflected on whether motivation, self-efficacy, and academic and social integration mattered for the re-evaluation process. No clear differences between patterns or programmes were found. Curriculum elements such as assessment and exposure to professional practice contributed to students' explorations, while guidance was perceived as more meaningful when structurally embedded and explicitly focused on supporting choice re-evaluation. Given the exploratory and small-scale nature of the study, findings have limited external validity, but highlight the importance of viewing study choice as an ongoing first-year process and the relevance of student-related and school-related factors associated with it.
Collegiality - encompassing collaborative relationships, participatory governance, and the collective shaping of academic norms and professional identities - has long been a cornerstone of higher education. Yet, the sector's transformations over the past four decades have challenged traditional collegial structures and practices. This study investigates how French academics interpret and enact collegiality amid these systemic changes, and the sensemaking dynamics they mobilise. The findings outline collegiality's conceptual ambiguity and intuitive understanding and highlight its dual nature, integrating governance and social dynamics, and the fragmented experience shaped by contextual and systemic cues. They show that HE transformations can be regarded as a catalyst for the erosion of the meaning of collegiality as well as a source of more transparent and enhanced collegial practices. Finally, they reveal how academics engage in diverse sensemaking strategies, such as sensegiving, sensebreaking, sensehiding, sense-exchanging, and sensedemanding, to influence collegiality's form in response to evolving institutional and environmental pressures. By applying a sensemaking lens to academics' approach to collegiality, this work clarifies and enriches the concept, highlighting its emotional and cognitive dissonances, its critical voices, and emphasising the need for a renewed form that safeguards higher education's organisational credibility, social cohesion, and scholarly authority.
