For German higher education, the introduction of a two-cycle study structure resulted in a new transition stage after the completion of the bachelor's degree. In contrast to some other countries, this structural change was stretched over a relatively long period. At the same time, the number of students enrolled in higher education has increased…

Contributions to home country after international higher education (IHE) have long been considered within the traditional frameworks of brain drain or brain circulation. However, recent scholarship has hinted at more nuances into this issue than what has been predominantly discussed. This study focuses on IHE graduate agency to investigate the…

Ensuring comparability of Likert-style items across different countries is a widespread challenge for authors of large-scale international surveys. Using data from the EUROGRADUATE Pilot Survey, this study employs a series of latent class analyses to explore which response patterns emerge from self-assessment of acquired and required skills of…

This article examines post-study work rights (PSWR) policy in three major international higher education destinations -- Australia, Germany and Canada -- through a comparative case study approach. The study found that PSWR policies typically have several objectives: to attract more international students; fill labour shortages; internationalise…

Studying abroad can positively influence students' personality development, transversal skills, and labour market outcomes. At the same time, students from a high social origin are more likely to study abroad than students from a low social origin. Against this background, recent research has suggested that international student mobility (ISM) may…

Mobility is becoming a defining feature of today's globalising society. Individuals move for a variety of reasons, including finding employment or pursuing education. This paper focuses on the interrelationship between two different types of migrants who have all moved out of one specific country to another. It builds on the perceptions of Turkish…

International student mobility (ISM) is considered increasingly important for professional careers. Referring to theories of human capital and job market signalling, we assume that different forms of ISM experience can serve as signals for general, specific and transnational human capital. To test this idea, we use a factorial survey experiment to…

Residential mobility--the change of residence within a country--is a pervasive phenomenon in 21st century societies, with the peak clearly being in young adulthood. Placing the self in geographical space has now become a major challenge for young adults, making region a key identity domain. Little is known, however, about the correlates of…

The authors develop a conceptual framework explaining monetary returns to international student mobility (ISM). Based on data from two German graduate panel surveys, they test this framework using growth curve models and Oaxaca-Blinder decompositions. The results indicate that ISM-experienced graduates enjoy a steeper wage growth after graduation…

This study analyses the effects of institutional stratification in higher education systems on graduates' wages in engineering fields in Germany and Korea. We use survey data from the Korean 2013 Graduates Occupational Mobility Survey (GOMS) and the German 2013 Graduate Survey Cooperation Project (KOAB). For Korea, where the higher education…

Recent research on economic returns to higher education in the United States suggests that those with the highest wage returns to a college degree are least likely to obtain one. We extend the study of heterogeneous returns to tertiary education across multiple institutional contexts, investigating how the relationship between wage returns and the…

Employability has become one of the most important outcomes of higher education despite it being weakly conceptualised for the sector. The lack of an accepted conceptualisation to address students' and graduates' employability results in difficulties when comparing research findings and therefore in assessing quality in higher education provision.…

To increase the number of graduates, a growing number of pundits and politicians favor providing free tuition for students attending public colleges and universities. This proposal is flawed. Affordability is not the main obstacle to getting a degree. There is also a risk that a tuition-free system for public institutions would leave them solely…

This study extends the comparative model of country groups to analyse the cross-national trends in the higher education expansion and opportunities. We use descriptive data on characteristics and outcomes of higher education systems in different countries groups, including the liberal market countries, the social democratic countries, the…

In this paper an analysis is carried out whether objective tests and subjective self-assessments in international large-scale studies yield similar results when looking at cross-national differences in the effects of skills on earnings, and skills patterns across countries, fields of study and gender. The findings indicate that subjective skills…