Higher Education Expansion and the Academization of Employment

目前正在进行的一场与公共和教育政策相关的辩论围绕着德国日益严重的“过度学院化”展开，即学院和大学毕业生数量的增长，以及这将对劳动力市场产生的影响。令人惊讶的是，这篇文章对高等教育的持续扩张和毕业生就业发展趋势之间关系的研究几乎没有考虑。研究表明，与各种预测相反，到目前为止，劳动力市场实际上已经吸收了绝大多数高等教育毕业生，尽管他们的队伍在不断壮大。总的来说，毕业生既没有经历收入损失，也没有在就业体系的等级制度中经历职位降级。因此，这种（过度）学院化不仅描述了劳动力中受过学术教育的候选人数量和份额的上升，即劳动力潜力。提供的职位似乎也已经演变，至少适应了这一现象所带来的新形势。虽然统计证据支持人事和就业职位的学术化，但这种动态的原因尚不清楚。本研究计划以若干以实践为导向的科目和职业范畴，例如早期教育、教育治疗和资讯系统，作为个案研究的范例，探讨学术化的过程，以及在专上教育（即大专院校）中产生教育潜力的理由。进一步探讨了用人制度下学历岗位的创设与建设。其目的是证明，如果是这样的话，在高等教育中学术劳动潜力的建设和分类与相应领域工作的建设和分类之间是否存在相互参照关系。在就业潜力的分类方面，该项目还将探讨建立和实施面向应用的科目和学位课程，并结合有关学科的各自区别。在当前关于学院化的辩论中，高等教育机构解决就业部门对合格候选人的需求被认为是理所当然的。相比之下，该项目关注的是高等教育的扩张本身是否以及在多大程度上没有产生对学者就业机会的这种“需求”，然后满足这种“需求”。

A debate currently playing out in connection with both public and educational policy revolves around an encroaching “over-academization” in Germany, i.e. the growing numbers of college and university graduates, and the ramifications this will have for the labour market. Surprisingly, this discourse only marginally takes research into account which examines the relationship between the ongoing expansion of higher education and the developing trends of its graduates’ employment. Studies have shown that, in contrast to manifold predictions, to date the labour market has in fact absorbed the vast majority of higher education graduates, notwithstanding their growing ranks. Overall, graduates have experienced neither a loss of income nor a downgrading of their positions within the hierarchy of the employment system. As such, this (over-)academization describes not only to the rising numbers and share of academically educated candidates in the labour force, i.e. labour potential. It would also appear that the positions offered have evolved to at least accommodate the new situation brought about by this phenomenon. And while statistical evidence supports the emergence of an academization of both personnel and employment positions, the reasons for this dynamic remain unclear.Using exemplary case studies on selected practice-oriented subjects and occupational fields – e.g. early education, educational therapy and information systems – the research project examines the process of academization and its rationale in connection with the generation of educational potential in postsecondary education, i.e. colleges and universities. It further probes the creation and construction of posts for the academically qualified within the employment system. The aim is to demonstrate if, and if so which, reciprocal referentials exist between the construction and classification of academic labour potential in postsecondary education on the one hand and the construction and classification of jobs in the corresponding fields on the other. In terms of the typification of employment potential, the project will also probe the institution and implementation of application-orientated subjects and degree programmes in conjunction with a respective differentiation of the relevant academic disciplines.It is taken for granted in the current debate on academization that institutions of higher learning address the need for qualified candidates arising in the employment sector. In contrast, the project focuses on whether and to what extent the expansion of high education does not indeed itself produce such a “need” for employment opportunities for academics, which it then satisfies.