Dilemmas concerning the employment of university graduates in China

Shuang Ren*, Ying Zhu, Malcolm Warner

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

20 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

This article draws on a ‘within-subject’ design of employment of university graduates in China over two different periods, namely 2008 and 2014. This research was conducted based on semi-structured interviews and secondary data analysis with four groups of key stakeholders including universities, government agencies, labor-market intermediaries and university graduates. The ‘within-subject’ design enabled an in-depth exploration of how changes at formal and informal institutions affect the employment of university graduates in a fast-changing labor market. The results show that lack of institutional interactions, socially constructed norms that influence graduates’ perceptions and ambiguous directions of educational policies significantly affect university graduates’ employment.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)551-571
Number of pages21
JournalStudies in Higher Education
Volume42
Issue number3
Early online date10 Jul 2015
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 04 Mar 2017
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • China
  • employability
  • employment
  • institutions
  • labor market
  • university graduates
  • ‘within-subject’ design

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Education

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