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This article provides evidence about differences in the recent tertiary education expansion in Austria, Germany, the Czech Republic, Poland and Slovakia. Focusing on these differences, we have examined private returns to tertiary education acquired before and after the tertiary education expansion. We compare these returns as follows: Austria with Germany and then the Czech Republic with Poland and Slovakia. Estimating private returns to education by applying the Mincerian (Mincer, 1974) approach on European Union Survey on Income and Living Conditions micro data (EU-SILC, n.d.), we show the differences that arise concerning the evaluation of tertiary education in the labour markets of these countries. While in Austria and Germany a more recent tertiary education is related to higher private returns, this is not the case in the Czech Republic, Poland and Slovakia where a declining trend towards private returns in more recent tertiary education is observable. Keywords Private returns to education, tertiary education expansionIncreasing access to tertiary education (TE) is a common pattern observable across all developed countries and is often referred to as the 'TE expansion'. It is approved and supported by national governments. In the European Union this policy has also been promoted on the supranational level, with a clearly articulated target of at least 40% of 30 to 34-year-olds having been in TE by 2020. This is one of the main goals of the Europe 2020 Strategy (European Commision, 2012). Although individual member states are allowed to set up their own quantification of their TE policy targets, a contribution as far as the achievement of common goals is concerned is required from each of