TY - JOUR
T1 - Liberal Arts Graduates in the Labour Market
T2 - A Comparative Study of Dutch University Colleges and Conventional Bachelor’s Programmes
AU - Kovačević, Milan
AU - Dekker, Teun
AU - van der Velden, Rolf
N1 - data source: WO Monitor
PY - 2024/12
Y1 - 2024/12
N2 - This paper compares the employment outcomes of liberal arts graduates from Dutch university colleges with those of their peers who pursued conventional, subject-specific bachelor’s degrees. Using data from the Dutch National Alumni Survey, the analysis includes 14,933 respondents who completed a master’s programme at a research university, with 210 of them holding a university college degree. Logistic, multinomial, and OLS regression analyses were performed on six labour market outcomes: employment status, time to first paid job, vertical match, horizontal match, vertical and horizontal match combination, and hourly wage from regular work. Propensity score matching was used as a robustness check. The results show that holding a university college degree is not associated with any distinct advantages or disadvantages in the job market. While a liberal arts bachelor’s degree has a negative effect on obtaining employment in STEM professions, no statistically significant differences, neither negative nor positive, were found in other outcomes. This suggests that university colleges do not lack the capacity to prepare students for the labour market.
AB - This paper compares the employment outcomes of liberal arts graduates from Dutch university colleges with those of their peers who pursued conventional, subject-specific bachelor’s degrees. Using data from the Dutch National Alumni Survey, the analysis includes 14,933 respondents who completed a master’s programme at a research university, with 210 of them holding a university college degree. Logistic, multinomial, and OLS regression analyses were performed on six labour market outcomes: employment status, time to first paid job, vertical match, horizontal match, vertical and horizontal match combination, and hourly wage from regular work. Propensity score matching was used as a robustness check. The results show that holding a university college degree is not associated with any distinct advantages or disadvantages in the job market. While a liberal arts bachelor’s degree has a negative effect on obtaining employment in STEM professions, no statistically significant differences, neither negative nor positive, were found in other outcomes. This suggests that university colleges do not lack the capacity to prepare students for the labour market.
U2 - 10.1007/s11162-024-09813-7
DO - 10.1007/s11162-024-09813-7
M3 - Article
SN - 0361-0365
VL - 65
SP - 1911
EP - 1933
JO - Research in Higher Education
JF - Research in Higher Education
IS - 8
ER -