Publications

This Intelligence Brief takes a closer look at students’ health. Compared to the overall population of the same age, students less often perceive their health as good or very good. Logistic regression analyses with German student data show strong and negative relations between financial difficulties and students’ health perception. Additionally, a cross-country comparison with EUROSTUDENT data consistently shows comparatively large shares of impaired students among those with financial difficulties. The findings indicate that policy makers should pay special attention to both impaired and financially challenged students in order to ensure their successful higher education participation and prevent negative societal effects of poor health.

This publication presents indicators on the social dimension of higher education in the European Higher Education Area in four key areas: Demographics and social background of students, transition and access into higher education, students’ employment, and the financial situation of students. To what extent can students of different backgrounds be found within the higher education systems? How open and flexible are European higher education systems in providing access to students entering higher education at different points in their lives, and with different past experiences? What are the circumstances under which students pursue their studies and how do they make a living?

The DZHW Panel Study: Careers of PhD Holders 2014 is a panel study of the DZHW concerning the careers of doctoral graduates. The study analyses how the formal context as well as the learning and development conditions that PhD graduates experienced during their doctorate studies influence the transition into employment and the further development of their professional career, both within as well as outside academia. The basic population comprises all persons who obtained a doctorate degree from a higher education institution with the right to award doctorates in Germany in the examination year of 2014. [...] Full abstract: https://doi.org/10.21249/DZHW:phd2014:4.0.0

Using theories of social inequality and migration, we combine the research strands dealing with study-related international mobility and with migration-related inequalities in higher education. Based on data from the 20th German Social Survey, we examine mechanisms through which a migration background may influence whether students in Germany intend to study abroad. Logistic regressions show that students with a migration background tend to be disadvantaged regarding their social background, which reduces their likelihood of intending to study in a different country.