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In higher education dual systems, graduates are qualified to apply for jobs in same professional fields along two separated educational routes. The research problem is whether the rival applicants for professional positions are treated equally in the labour market despite their different qualifications. From the graduates point of view, to be equal means to have an opportunity to be employed in accordance with one's professional skill. Applying European survey data, the article tests to what extent the 'distribution of work' between university and non-university graduates seems to be based on educational qualifications or actual competence. Among 4,000 German, Dutch, Finnish, and Swiss graduates primarily in business and administration and engineering, only slight and occasional evidence of 'status-based recruitment' was found. All in all, the research suggests that from the view of graduate employment, the European dual HE systems work very much following the principle of 'different but equal'. Keywords Competence * Equality of opportunity * Graduate employment * Higher education dual systems * Labour market selection * Occupational status * Professional skill * Qualification, Equality in spite of difference? It is typical to dual systems in higher education that graduates are qualified to apply for jobs in the same professional fields along two separated [...]

Abstract. Analysing foundation charters, this article explores the various purposes universities have been said to serve at different periods of time, how the distinction between universities and other educational establishments [...]

The article presents the authors' response to the comments on the article "Expanding Education and Improving Odds?" The article focused on the differences in participation in higher education in Finland in the 1980s and 1990s. The comments were made on two bases. The divergent conclusions of empirical analyses depend on the choice of statistical measure for the comparison of class-by-education tables. The discussion concerns how to explain the contents of a class-by-education table.

This article analyses the mechanisms of a state-organized educational system as it functions between households and the labour market, regulating the passage of age cohorts from the home via school to the labour market. One question is what outcomes the educational system actually produces and what mechanisms are at work in the distribution of educational advantage. In terms of disadvantage, the paper assesses solutions for overcoming the skill gap and entrapment problems of post-industrial society by means of education. In addition to describing how the educational system worked in the conditions of a mature Nordic welfare state and an industrial society based on paid work, feasible ways of reorganizing education in the changing work conditions of an increasingly crisis-ridden post-industrial society are also sought. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]