José-Ginés Mora

The Economics of Higher Education

This chapter synthesises what economists have learned about a number of key topics related to the provision of higher education and its roles in promoting economic development and well-being. The shift towards a global economy, as well as other economic changes brought about by technological and institutional development, have raised new concerns about the importance of post-secondary education in the enhancement of individuals and in the advancement of society as a whole. Economists translate these concerns into research questions of two main types. The first one includes questions about the production process within higher education institutions, that is, the mechanisms through which the resources allocated to higher education are transformed into educational outputs demanded by society. The second type of questions is about the relationships between the outcomes of higher education and people’s well-being. The topics analysed cover both the private market and non-market returns to the investment in higher education, as well as the contribution of higher education to economic growth and to advances in equity.

The rewards of human capital competences for young European higher education graduates

The concept of human capital is the idea that people spend on themselves in diverse ways, not for the sake of present enjoyment, but for the sake of future monetary and nonmonetary returns. They may purchase health care; they may voluntarily acquire additional education; they may spend time searching for a job with the highest possible rate of pay, instead of accepting the first offer that comes along; they may purchase information about job opportunities; they may migrate to take advantage of better employment opportunities; and the may choose jobs with low pay but high learning potential in preference to dead-end jobs with high pay. All these phenomena – health, education, job search, information retrieval, migration, and in-service training may be viewed as investment rather than consumption, whether undertaken by individuals on their own behalf or undertaken by society on behalf of its members. Consequently, education represents more than an investment in human capital (Becker 1993) because it allows individuals to learn and acquire skills that will fundamentally shape their behaviour, beliefs and role in society (Haveman & Wolfe 1984). Education appears to be related to people’s success in making many economic decisions; longer schooling, in particular, promotes more efficient decision-making processes related to the labour market through the acquisition of information that has a positive impact on personal choices (Arrow 1997). Evaluations of the appropriate level of investment in schooling have typically focused on market outcomes, particularly labour market returns. The relationship between earnings and schooling has been widely studied at both the theoretical and empirical levels. The relationship is simple to state: more educated people enjoy a higher level of earnings than people with a lower level of education. Longer schooling and training improve the chances of employment (Iyigun & Owen 1999; Rivera-Batiz 1992), reduce unemployment duration (Kettunen 1997; Kiefer 1985) and positively influence income through higher labour market

Tendências das reformas da educação superior na Europa no contexto do processo de Bolonha

This paper discusses the recent trends in the higher education reforms in Europe, which started a few years ago. It analyzes their main features, how they contributed to have universities lose their competitiveness and attractiveness at the international level, what were the answers of the stakeholders (government, teachers and students) to renew their pedagogical and management strategies and thus respond to recent training demands in the knowledge society. It also presents the major component of this renovation - the Bologna Declaration, signed in 1999 -, its goals, activities and tools. It finally points out the problems in its implementation that may delay this process and what challenges should be overcome to attain the objectives set by the year 2010.

Universidades: mitos, modas y tendencias

Las universidades, como el resto de las instituciones humanas, no han sido ni son ajenas a combinar la necesidad real de cumplir una mision socialmente deseable con un conjunto de mitos, modas y tendencias que no siempre soportan un analisis critico, ese que los universitarios aplicamos a otros campos del saber pero que tendemos a olvidar cuando analizamos nuestra entorno mas cercano. Es relevante analizar desde una posicion critica (que no es necesariamente negativa) las tendencias que dominan el panorama actual de la educacion superior. Como en todos los fenomenos sociales, estas tendencias estan basadas en demandas reales, pero a las que se han ido anadiendo elementos de dudosa validez que desvirtuan en muchos casos los objetivos iniciales que explican el origen de la tendencia. En este articulo se analizan algunos mitos, algunas tendencias, que en algun caso son posiblemente meras modas, y ciertos aspectos que realmente forman parte de la esencia de la universidad: servir a la sociedad formando personas preparadas para vivir y trabajar en un mundo globalizado.