Towards a Highly Educated Society

Abstract

Both political statements and research on the relationships between higher education and work were shaped by predominantly sceptical views about the expansion of higher education. A traditional perspective prevailed according to which talents both in education and employment are scarce. A review of major research approaches and findings in the 1970s and 1980s indicates that most economic approaches and most analyses of statistical data were preoccupied with ‘over-education’ and that most surveys addressed limitations of ‘appropriate employment’ and ‘utilization of knowledge’. The findings of research, however, indicate a lesser friction between higher education expansion and the labour market than initially envisaged. A paradigmatic change of research is still pending. In the light of the fact that the proportion of college-trained people among the total workforce has more or less doubled during the last two decades and is projected to continue growing in the future, the question is put forward of whether concepts about graduate employment should fundamentally change. A highly educated society requires research on work tasks and the division of labour, no longer determined by scarcity of highly qualified labour but rather by opportunities to make use of a new wealth of potentials. In this context, ‘push’ effects of educational expansion visible in the last decade, as well as the signs of changing needs of society, are discussed: for example a blurring of traditional boundaries of areas of expertise, the growing need for cooperation between experts from different areas, a decentralization of responsibilities and a gradual horizontalization of the occupational structure.