“Bachelors and Employability”

Wissenschaftskommunikation & Hochschulforschung | http://www.iff.ac.at/hofo

David F J Campbell ([email protected]): “Bachelors and Employability” BeSt3 “The Job and Education Fair”: Vienna, March 2, 2007

“Bachelors and Employability”

Presentation for BeSt3 “The Job and Education Fair”, Vienna, Friday, March 2, 2007

David F. J. Campbell

[email protected] http://www.iff.ac.at/hofo



Bachelors and Employability 2007/01

• What is employability?• One answer: the ability (degree of ability) of graduates

to find jobs after completion of their studies.• Implication #1: Employability becomes a liability and

responsibility of HEIs.• Implication #2: Employability may serve as a benchmark

and as key performance indicators for HEIs.




• Objectives for Bachelors (“BAs”) and “employability” are:

1. BA graduates should receive a “knowledge” that can be applied and thus transformed into a practical occupation context.

2. BA students should be able to finish their BA studies in a pre-defined time frame.




• What is knowledge? Ramifications are:1. Integration of knowledge creation/production,

diffusion and use;2. In epistemic terms: “Mode 1” and “Mode 2”;3. Societies and economies are increasingly

knowledge-based;4. The importance of “innovation”.



Bachelors and Employability 2007/04:What is knowledge?















Bachelors and Employability 2007/09:Challenges for the employability of BAs

1. The Bachelors as a “short-term” degree versus the expectation that, as a consequence of LLL (“life-long learning”), the demand on the individual to extend the number of accomplished academic degrees will expand;

2. “BA” degrees must be seen as “individual components” of a more comprehensive education and degree system;




3. The Bachelors must integrate: (specialized) knowledge, social skills, personality;

4. Practical knowledge (internships/“Praktika”) will gain crucially in importance for the BA;

5. The disciplinary tracks of the BA degrees will equal the disciplinary logic of the previous system versus the disciplinary basket will be reshuffled;




6. BAs: “Comprehensive scope” and/or “focused scope”;

7. BAs: “Academic orientation” and/or “professional orientation;

8. BAs: “Full-time” and/or “part-time” (in parallel to an occupation) studies;




9. BAs: Language of teaching in the national language (German) and/or in English;

10. BAs: Recognition of work experience for certain BA modules or not;

11. BAs: “Horizontal mobility” – the ability of adding additional studies and degrees in an “interdisciplinary mode” after completion of a BA’s degree.



Bachelors and Employability 2007/13:Hypothetical typology & virtual %

distribution of BAs and MAs

• In the following, as working hypotheses for a further debate, a (micro) typology of different profiles of BA and MA degrees and of their (“virtual”) percentage distribution of frequency – in the future – are being presented.

























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“Bachelors and Employability”