Publications

While recent research has investigated what signals of academic performance govern academics’ access to professorships, whether the power of such signals varies across disciplines has to date hardly been examined. We argue that the signaling power of academic achievements depends on the discipline-specific degree of standardization of research and on the spatio-temporal universality of research objects. Using a factorial survey experiment with Germany-based university professors of German studies, selected social sciences, and chemistry, we investigate the suitability of fictitious candidates for a tenured professorship.

Individual educational and life paths are far more diverse today than is often assumed. Many paths with and without a university entrance qualification lead to higher education at different points in time. Diversity persists in higher education and beyond. Students have different backgrounds, change their course of study, interrupt their studies, or drop out. The current findings in this anthology impressively explore this diversity, from the paths to a degree program to the labor market.

Educational and employment careers do not always follow a straight line, as the nine chapters of this volume demonstrate. The chapters cover various topics related to access to higher education and transition to the labour market. They address the direct and indirect pathways to higher education, the potential complexity of the decision-making involved, and possible returns to the multiple educational pathways. The variety of educational trajectories, the focus of the volume, has gained importance in empirical educational research, not least because there are now rich longitudinal data sets such as the DZHW Panel Study of School Leavers or the National Education Panel (NEPS). Only by monitoring individuals over an extended period ...

Germany has a highly differentiated school system which opens up different paths to higher education entrance qualifications. However, recent sociological research on school leavers' qualification decisions has mainly only included selective aspects of the previous educational biography. The aim of this article is, therefore, (1) to identify the various patterns of educational progression before the higher education entrance qualification is acquired and (2) to determine the extent to which the decision to enter a university, a university of applied sciences, or not to enrol differs according to these patterns. Special attention is paid to the classic inequality dimensions of gender and educational background. To investigate these questions

This paper focuses on dual qualifications (vocational and academic) and on how they affect social disparities in the probability of going to university. We analyze data from the DZHW Panel Study of School Leavers with a Higher Education Entrance Qualification 2012 to assess whether students find their way into academia via alternative pathways (vocational training) and whether this reduces existing social disparities in their likelihood of studying. This approach allows us to look at the educational pathways and detours to higher education over a more extended time than has been done in earlier studies and to highlight the effect of the timing of vocational training. On the one hand, our results confirm earlier findings ...

Despite reform efforts in education policy, social inequalities in the transition to tertiary education still persist in Germany. Following Boudon’s (1974) distinction between primary and secondary effects of social origin, various studies have addressed the question to what extent these effects contribute to social inequality, but they usually only approximate the explanatory contribution of secondary effects. By estimating a decomposition analysis based on a current data set from the German Panel Study of School Leavers, we are able to examine the extent to which primary and secondary origin effects, and especially their individual components, explain social inequalities in the decision to enrol. It turns out that differences ...

Refugees with adequate prior education often aspire to continue or take up university studies in Germany. The article looks at aspects of (educational) biographies and their relation to how participants in preparatory courses for international students at “Studienkollegs” experience time. Quantitative and qualitative data are used for this purpose. Biographically, the situation of refugees differs substantially from that of traditional participants in preparatory courses. We reconstruct different patterns of interpreting time at the “Studienkolleg”: as a professional (or educational) biographical moratorium, a new start in the host country, or as lost time. The results are discussed against the background of the current state of research ..

This paper examines the influence of gender and social background on higher education dropout and subsequent educational and occupational reorientation. In this context, both settings are discussed theoretically and then examined empirically, both separately and in interaction. In particular, our paper highlights the importance and analytical consequences of how dropout is defined and which group of "non-dropouts" is used for comparison. Based on data of the DZHW-Exmatrikuliertenbefragung (survey of exmatriculated students), it is shown that social origin and gender affect both the risk of dropping out and subsequent educational decisions. In addition, the analyses show that women's risk of dropping out and their ...

The aim of this paper is to investigate career paths within the first 12 months after graduating with a teaching degree (master or first state examination) in an exploratory manner. Based on the panel data of teacher education students from the German National Education Panel (NEPS) Starting Cohort 5, we find that 66 % of the observed sample (N = 2,302) transition to preparatory service within the first 12 months after graduation. Another 14 % take the direct route into the teaching profession, while 20 % pursue an occupation not (directly) related to teaching. Significant differences between these groups are found, for example, in terms of gender distribution, field of study, and final grades.

Although, for decades, a high number of students in Germany have completed vocational education and training before starting university, higher education research has hardly considered vocationally pre-qualified students in a differentiated way. Against this background, this paper aims to paint a more detailed picture of higher education graduates with previous vocational education and training. Specifically, we will answer two questions: What distinguishes these graduates from others without previous vocational training? Moreover, how diverse is this group in itself? In addition to conducting an exploratory, descriptive comparison of various characteristics, including personality traits, this article uses a machine learning approach. ...

Recent evidence suggests that women are more likely to be selected for professorships when they apply. This female advantage may be partly due to the widely promoted gender-equality policy of having a substantial female quota in selection committees. Yet, research has rarely considered whether male and female committee members evaluate applicants for professorships differently. We address this research gap based on a large factorial survey experiment with German university professors from different disciplines. We asked these professors to rate how qualified hypothetical applicants are for full professorships and the likelihood of inviting these applicants for a job interview.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, contact, education, and employment opportunities have fundamentally changed worldwide. However, various studies have pointed out that not everyone is equally affected by the changed circumstances. This paper focuses on the impact of the pandemic on the study situation in German higher education and explores the question to what extent the pandemic has led to increasing or decreasing social inequalities. Building on social stratification research and Tinto’s model of social and academic integration we focus on dropout intentions of traditionally disadvantaged student groups – students with disabilities, with children, from families with lower levels of education, and with a migrant background. (...)