The changing value of higher education as a currency of opportunity
Asian Education and Development Studies
ISSN: 2046-3162
Article publication date: 10 June 2020
Issue publication date: 3 January 2022
Abstract
Purpose
The worldwide expansion of higher education participation has destabilised the value of higher education as a currency of opportunity. An increasing number of graduates are experiencing the precarity of unemployment, under-employment and low salaries. This study aimed to investigate how university students in China understand and respond to the changing relationship between higher education and career opportunities.
Design/methodology/approach
The research team conducted 100 in-depth interviews with final-year undergraduates at one elite and one lower-tier university in a metropolitan city in Guangdong Province.
Findings
The students were acutely aware of fierce competition in the graduate labour market. When asked “what matters most” for post-graduation career prospects, they identified elite universities and high-status fields of study as “traditional” currencies of opportunity. Nonetheless, to stand out in a competitive environment, they perceived a growing need to supplement higher education credentials through university experiences (internships, student governance, study abroad programmes), party membership, personal connections and (overseas) postgraduate education. Moreover, in a “race to the top”, they discussed how qualitatively distinctive university experiences and elite postgraduate education are “new” currencies of opportunity for high-status professional employment.
Originality/value
The study demonstrates how intensified competition for graduate employment can result in an “opportunity trap”. The students were participating in an “arms race” to accumulate positional advantages for their post-graduation careers. The net impact of such efforts on a systemic level is to create an upward spiral in what students are expected to do in preparation for their post-graduation careers and further destabilise the value of higher education as a currency of opportunity.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
This paper forms part of a special section “Higher Education in the Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao Greater Bay Area”, guest edited by Alice Y.C. Te and Gerard A. Postiglione.The authors would like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments on earlier drafts of this article.
Citation
Wright, E. and Wei, H. (2022), "The changing value of higher education as a currency of opportunity", Asian Education and Development Studies, Vol. 11 No. 1, pp. 42-54. https://doi.org/10.1108/AEDS-08-2019-0120
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2020, Emerald Publishing Limited