Drawing on three large datasets from the German Higher Education Information System Institute (HIS) from 1990, 1994 and 1999, the study reveals that Turkish youth are considerably more likely than Germans to enter tertiary education. This result sharply contrasts with fi ndings on the Turks' poor performance in primary and secondary school. The higher propensity for tertiary education among Turks can, to some degree, be explained by their lack of familiarity with the German system of dual vocational training and their educational motivation. Another important fi nding is that among those who enter higher education students of Turkish origin choose, more often than Germans, academically oriented universities rather than the lower-tier applied science universities. This is mainly due to the selection of more traditional fi elds offered at universities by Turkish young adults.Our results indicate that the educational decisions of these students after the Abitur by no means contribute to the established pattern of ethnic disadvantages in educational attainment in Germany.

No abstract

This article seeks to provide one of the first systematic comparative analyses of labor market consequences associated with fields of study. Using data of 22 countries from the European Labor Force Surveys (2004 and 2005), we analyze how field of study affects unemployment and occupational status for university-educated graduates. Our core hypothesis is that relative differences between fields should increase with educational expansion at the university level. Results of multilevel two-step regressions generally confirm our expectations. The more students graduate from universities, the greater the differences in labor market chances of university graduates from different fields.

No abstract