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)