Uni­ver­si­ty gra­dua­tes have long-term care­er ad­van­ta­ges over gra­dua­tes from other uni­ver­si­ties

Com­pared to peo­p­le with a uni­ver­si­ty de­gree, peo­p­le with de­grees from other uni­ver­si­ties have a head start on the la­bor mar­ket, but fall be­hind in the long term. This is shown by a stu­dy by the In­sti­tu­te for Em­ploy­ment Re­se­arch (IAB), which was pu­blished on xx and ex­ami­nes the em­ploy­ment his­to­ries of high school gra­dua­tes. Due to their prac­ti­ce-ori­en­ted edu­ca­ti­on, peo­p­le with de­grees from uni­ver­si­ties of ap­pli­ed sci­en­ces, tech­ni­cal col­leges, art col­leges or ad­mi­nis­tra­ti­ve col­leges take up em­ploy­ment si­gni­fi­cant­ly fas­ter on avera­ge: Around 91 per­cent are em­ploy­ed by the age of 25, while this ap­pli­es to 86 per­cent of peo­p­le with a uni­ver­si­ty de­gree. Ho­we­ver, uni­ver­si­ty gra­dua­tes have hig­her em­ploy­ment ra­tes la­ter in their care­ers. In ad­di­ti­on, gra­dua­tes from other uni­ver­si­ties lea­ve the work­force more quick­ly, espe­ci­al­ly men. In terms of hour­ly wa­ges, ho­we­ver, the­re is no start­ing ad­van­ta­ge for peo­p­le with de­grees from other uni­ver­si­ties. From the age of 35, ho­we­ver, the gap in in­co­me bet­ween uni­ver­si­ty gra­dua­tes and gra­dua­tes from other uni­ver­si­ties wi­dens as they pro­gress in their care­ers. „Peo­p­le with uni­ver­si­ty de­grees have a clear ad­van­ta­ge in terms of wage de­ve­lo­p­ment over the cour­se of their care­ers,“ ex­plains IAB re­se­ar­cher Hans Diet­rich.
The IAB re­se­ar­chers also in­ves­ti­ga­ted how the so­cio-eco­no­mic sta­tus of peo­p­le with a uni­ver­si­ty de­gree and peo­p­le with de­grees from other uni­ver­si­ties de­ve­lo­ps. Uni­ver­si­ty gra­dua­tes can achie­ve gains in so­cio-eco­no­mic sta­tus, espe­ci­al­ly in the first few ye­ars of em­ploy­ment, while the sta­tus of peo­p­le with other uni­ver­si­ty de­grees ch­an­ges only slight­ly over the cour­se of their working care­er. For wo­men with de­grees from other uni­ver­si­ties, the­re is even a weak but sys­te­ma­tic de­cli­ne in pro­fes­sio­nal sta­tus or so­cio-eco­no­mic po­si­ti­on over the cour­se of their working life. „The stu­dy re­sults il­lus­tra­te the high re­le­van­ce of edu­ca­tio­nal de­cis­i­ons af­ter the Ab­itur,“ sum­ma­ri­zes Alex­an­der Patzi­na, re­se­ar­cher at the IAB and the Uni­ver­si­ty of Bam­berg. The stu­dy is ba­sed on data from the Ger­man So­cio-Eco­no­mic Pa­nel Stu­dy (SOEP) from 1984 to 2015, which ana­ly­zed the em­ploy­ment his­to­ries of peo­p­le bet­ween the ages of 25 and 65 with a ge­ne­ral hig­her edu­ca­ti­on ent­rance qua­li­fi­ca­ti­on and com­ple­ted hig­her edu­ca­ti­on. Source: In­sti­tu­te for Em­ploy­ment Re­se­arch of the Fe­de­ral Em­ploy­ment Agen­cy (IAB)