Over-academicization

Over-academization is a term used partly analytically, partly polemically (and not infrequently in connection with anti-intellectual attitudes and prejudices ), which describes the training of too high a proportion of tertiary education graduates beyond the estimated or postulated need. A variant of the thesis of the over-academization of young people in Germany, postulated in the 2010s, reads: “We have far more students than jobs that must be filled by academics.” Over-academization is also used when a degree becomes a new one Entry requirement for an entire professional field is or should be and this (planned) innovation is to be criticized. In an attempt to objectify the term, the main problem is to assess which of the competences acquired during the course of study the person concerned will probably never have to use in the practice of the occupation later pursued.

The approximate equivalent for this term in Anglo-Saxon countries is overeducation . Overeducation, however, also means above-average (training) training and residence times in the secondary school system , which are not included in the German term of over-academization. While this refers to an oversupply of academically qualified people on the labor market, the term overeducation focuses more on the individual labor market risks for people who voluntarily choose an activity below their qualification level or are forced to do so when starting their career. However, over-academization and over-education are closely related and are considered here together.

In relative terms, it should be noted that econometric studies assess the macroeconomic consequences of an insufficient qualification for the specific job as a minor problem compared to overqualification.

History of the complaint about “too many academics” and the increase in professional requirements

"Too many academics and people who want to become"

Criticizing too many and too long students is not new. Particularly in the national socialism , which tended to be hostile to education , the study of subjects that were not directly useful was devalued in favor of a cult of the body, competition and heroism and the idea of a homogeneous national community without status differences. In particular, women - but only until shortly before the outbreak of war - fell victim to policies that were hostile to education by restricting access to tertiary education.

In post-war Germany too, conservative circles, often from teachers' associations in the secondary school system , repeatedly raised concerns about overeducation and over-academicization. This argument was often combined with objections to the limitless enforcement of the parents' will when choosing a school and the reference to the supposed exhaustion of talent reserves . Recently, the lack of practical relevance in high school or academic education has been criticized, most recently by the German Association of Philologists in 2013.

On the other hand, the social democratic and trade union side still regards the increase in the student entry rate from 11 percent in 1970 to 55 percent in 2013 as inadequate: children of non-academics and especially migrants continue to make a disproportionately low share of the total number of students.

Anti-elitist movements and attitudes in democracies also criticize an alleged or actual overeducation trap . As in the since 1776 notoriously elite hostile United States or in South Korea . The trap is that high school graduates feel compelled to pursue a college degree because they see that even college graduates often only get undemanding, low-paying jobs. More and more state resources would be spent without sustainable effects. Similarly, it is argued in Germany that high school graduates who do not get an attractive job or apprenticeship position (mainly because of poor grades) feel compelled to continue studying, or that bachelors who do not get an attractive job join a master’s course.

Professional associations such as the American Medical Association often try to limit the number of young professionals through study restrictions and thereby keep the income of their members high. However, associations that see their training programs in direct competition with university attendance also complain about over-academization. a. the chambers of crafts.

Since the first PISA study and the increasing number of complaints about the shortage of skilled workers, there has probably been a consensus that talent reserves still need to be tapped in Germany; Of course, there is no consensus on the question of whether this should be done by strengthening academic or professional (and here again: within the framework of dual, full-time school or cooperative training?). Instead of the general question of over- or under-training, there is the question of the optimal allocation of resources to the various branches of the training system and the demand for a shortening of the purely school-based, practical training components. The Hessen Agency found that training in two-year training courses for assistant professions at higher vocational schools is often only chosen because there are no company training positions. However, full-time school-based training is too far from practical and leads to difficulties entering working life. Many graduates therefore sought further training immediately after completing their training. In 2006, when comparing the job market opportunities of dual and full-time school-trained graduates, the BIBB found better job market opportunities for graduates of the dual system and higher drop-out rates in full-time school-based training. Despite these problems, the vocational schools tended to “solidify” their offers and thus did not respond to local labor market needs.

Even the OECD , which for many years reprimanded Germany for having too few university graduates, has tended in recent years to the view that the German dual training system, which is highly practice-oriented, has a number of advantages over purely school-based or academic vocational training and can serve as a model.

With regard to southern Europe in particular, in view of the high level of youth unemployment after the still visible negative effects on the labor market of the financial crisis from 2008–2012, the question arose whether too many young people there were or are being trained over and over again. The comparison of the unemployment rates in countries that have significantly increased their student rates such as France, Spain, Italy and Great Britain, with those in Germany, Austria and Switzerland - according to the educator Karl-Heinz Dammer - shows that the human capital theory thesis of the economic correlation Success with a high level of formal education does not apply and the academic education has above all a socio-symbolic meaning .

“Unnecessary” or counterproductive academization of previously non-academic professions

Over-academization is also a defense against efforts to obtain a university entrance qualification or a degree as an entry requirement for starting vocational training or practicing a certain profession.

Such demands for an academization of training came and continue to arise in Germany above all in the health system as a whole, especially in the areas of nursing, physiotherapy, speech therapy and in the area of early childhood education. But there were also demands from the trade unions for the academization of training, e.g. B. the air traffic controller to the administrator , which was justified with salary arguments.

A trend towards an “over-academization” of an occupational field mean e.g. B. To recognize critics of the analysis published by the Nursing Chamber of Lower Saxony in December 2018, according to which there is a "[d] clear need for action to academise the nursing professions". This exacerbates the nursing emergency, which also results from a lack of skilled workers. This will be tightened if a university entrance qualification and a completed degree become new requirements for learning and exercising care professions. The pressure on those who work as carers to continue their education, together with the relatively low income, will also mean that many of them would change their careers.

Country-specific developments

United States

The term overacademization is used more broadly in the USA than the corresponding German term. There one speaks critically of the over-academicization of politics (due to the dominance of academically trained experts), kindergarten (in the sense of schooling), etc.

Economists at Duke University and the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill come for the United States to the conclusion that over Education or Overacademization on the initial profession is particularly harmful, and indeed especially in times of crisis. 62 percent of all career starters are overeducated when measured against the requirements , and 66 percent of the newcomers who have accepted a job that is below the level of their academic degree at the start of their career do not find an appropriate job later. Women are more likely to be affected by these consequences of overeducation than men. It should be noted, however, that an undergraduate course in the USA is more comparable to the upper secondary school level in a German-speaking country than to the basic university course. The stigmatization caused by an inferior job entry and the economic, social and psychological individual consequences of the subsequent often unsuccessful search for a job that corresponds to the training are described as overeducation scarring (“scarring”).

Because of the sharp rise in tuition fees in the United States (an average of $ 30,000 per year in 2010 for a bachelor's degree at a private school and $ 9,000 at a state university - each excluding accommodation costs), the average personal debt also rose significantly: in 2010, a quarter of that had Households over 20,000 and seven percent of households over $ 50,000 in student debt. However, many of the graduates no longer achieve an income level (or only very late) that makes this investment appear profitable: The repayment of student loans subsequently extends over ever longer periods of time.

Germany

Germany is currently falling behind the requirements of the European Union, according to which 40 percent of the 30 to 34 year-old citizens of the member states should in future have a university degree. This quota is already clearly exceeded by some EU countries, such as Lithuania with 57 percent. While in Germany in 2014 almost half of the members of one year (2005: only 36 percent) studied, the OECD average was a good 60 percent. As before, however, the unemployment rate of university graduates in Germany is significantly lower than that of those who have completed dual vocational training or even of people without a qualification. So far there has been no end to the trend towards academization. Critics counter this, however, by saying that people with a bachelor's degree are often only hired because there are not enough interested parties with a “tailor-made degree” for the job.

The trend in Germany to opt for a degree instead of in-company training is strongly gender-specific, which is also related to the respective subject preferences. While the number of apprenticeship contracts with young men is increasing slightly, young women continue to push for full-time school-based vocational training for health, education and social professions and are also more likely to take up studies. Immigrants are also increasingly aiming for a degree instead of dual training, but 41 percent drop out again.

Julian Nida-Rümelin criticized in his book "Der Akademisierungswahn" from 2014 that in these professional fields that require guided practice, practice is breaking down as a result of increasing academization, while in the modularized and narrowly specialized bachelor's degree theoretical reflection and an eye for connections got lost. It was countered that the resistance to the academization of the educator profession was stubborn mainly because educators as non-academics could previously be paid significantly less than, for example, teachers at a primary school who must have successfully completed their studies. It should also be taken into account that prior to the introduction of Bachelor courses in Germany, students who left the university after two or three years did not have a degree and were rated as " dropouts " (or euphemistically as "people with university experience"). The skepticism towards the short bachelor's degree, which u. a. Should reduce the drop-out rate and only offer a first glimpse into scientific work methods, but not a full-fledged substitute for dual training, is therefore retained by many HR managers.

Nida-Rümelin, as a social democrat, no opponent of a good education for many, feels partially misunderstood: nothing is further from him than to keep determined young people away from studies. “Anyone who has the talent,” he emphasized in 2016, “should definitely study.” He was only bothered by “the crude generalization of many proponents of studies”, whose thesis: “Academics earn best and are less likely to be unemployed” is too undifferentiated.

According to a survey by the German Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DIHK), only 47 percent of companies stated in 2015 that career starters with a bachelor's degree fulfilled their expectations. Every 5th Bachelor's degree is terminated during the probationary period, but only every 10th Master's degree. This has to do with the low practical orientation of the bachelor's degree and with unsuitable selection procedures. By contrast, in 2007 67 percent of all companies surveyed were satisfied with the graduates. Small companies in particular - according to the critics - could not organize trainee programs to systematically compensate for the lack of practical experience in the course. They are dependent on internships in which the suitability of applicants can be tested because one cannot rely on the practical relevance of the qualifications. 6 percent of the vacancies for academics were offered by the (mostly larger) companies surveyed in the JobTrends Germany 2015 study by the Staufenbiel Institute for trainees, only 27 percent for graduates, but 44 percent for interns - in economics there are even more .

The Institute for Employment Research (IAB) stated in 2016 (based on data from 2013) that 43 percent of German employees are formally overqualified even in jobs with high requirements. In a European comparison, this is a high value. This fundamental finding also applies across Europe, especially for younger and older people and especially for agricultural and service professions. This is explained by the authors through a less focused study and lack of practice, which lead to a career entry below the formal qualification. The individual returns on investment in Germany with suitable qualifications are quite high in a European comparison at 16 percent, with low qualifications only slightly lower at 13 percent, but very low for overqualified persons at 7 percent in a European comparison.

According to another German study, there are indications that overeducation when entering a job is more problematic for future professional development than prolonged search unemployment, which leads to a job entry level with adequate qualifications. According to several of these studies, overeducation of applicants sends a more negative signal to employers than unemployment. German politicians, however, are more often drawing the conclusion from the feared bachelor's glut to admit more graduates to master’s courses, although it is unclear whether this will not only shift the problem to the next higher level.

Subjectively unfavorable prospects for success and employment make it easier for working-class children to dissuade them from studying at a university than young people from higher classes who base their training decisions less on labor market-related but on status considerations and who, due to family tradition, see hardly any alternatives to studying anyway. So while working-class children tend to adopt rational choice behavior, this is apparently less the case with regard to the choice of women to study. The DIW comes in a study concludes that the lower incomes of women in Germany are certainly not caused by shorter (school) training periods. On the contrary, for women a longer training period than that which is absolutely necessary for certain professions hardly paid off. In addition, overeducation leads to lower job satisfaction. Due to the trend that girls are more likely to choose full-time school education, they suffer particularly from the low interest rates on additional training investments. In addition, there is the generally falling demand for office jobs with full-time school education.

In 2013, Der Spiegel criticized what it believed was the wrong thrust of the discussion: “It would be fundamentally wrong to pit university studies and vocational training against each other. The aim must be to make better use of the educational potential overall. One starting point is to reduce the 1.5 million, far too high number of young adults without completed vocational training and without further qualifications. ”In 2013, neither under- nor over-academization was a real problem in Germany. The problems lie more in social mobility (“Who can get a university degree?”) And in exhausting the educational reserves at the bottom of the qualification hierarchy (“How can we help school and training dropouts to obtain a qualification?”).

The Federation of German Employers' Associations (BDA) and the Federation of German Industry (BDI) declared in 2014: “The ongoing discussion about a possible 'over-academization' is overshadowing the current educational policy challenges. A lack of training maturity, a lack of professional orientation, high drop-out rates in schools and universities as well as a still high number of people without any professional qualifications are the actual current challenges in education policy. We have to reduce these deficits - through more quality in the education system and through setting the right course in vocational training. 'We need everyone!' [...] "

With the help of a "job traffic light", Der Stern regularly provided up-to-date information for those willing to study, students and academics about the labor market situation in the 26 most common courses in Germany until the mid-2010s. All versions showed that there were always academic courses and professions in which the supply of applicants was lower than the demand for them, but that at the same time there were also courses and professions in which the opposite was the case was. Only in a few cases did the “traffic light” show the same color over the years.

In 2017, the Education and Science Union (GEW) rated complaints from the business community about wrong decisions by school leavers as implausible. Since 2011, the proportion of companies in Germany that take part in vocational training has decreased from 25 to 20 percent. 20,000 young people who were looking for a training position in 2016 were registered as unemployed as of September 30, 2016. Another 60,000 who would have liked to begin an apprenticeship would have decided to go to school or study (20,000 of the 60,000 named would have had a university entrance qualification). In autumn 2016, a total of 80,000 young people told the Federal Employment Agency that they were (still) interested in taking up dual vocational training. The behavior of the companies described is an indication of the spread of a "free rider" mentality, in which companies like to hire fully trained young people who have trained others.

Austria

The IAB finding that in Germany in jobs with high qualification requirements formally overqualified people are employed applies even more to Austria. The philosopher Konrad Paul Liessmann , who teaches in Vienna, speaks in his book, published in 2014, of the “transformation of higher schools into socio-educational institutions”, their conscious turning away from the strenuous task of confronting young people with difficult but “useless” content through the competence concept legitimized that is based only on the current needs of students or employers. Its usefulness is questionable in view of a future that nobody knows.

Belgium

A Belgian study in the Flemish part of the country shows a similar result as in the US study. However, these authors draw the conclusion that overqualified people should not be placed in any job quickly, but that they might have to accept long waiting times on the job market.

Southern Europe

For Spain, Portugal, Italy and Greece, the Institute for Labor Market and Occupational Research found that 29 to 52 percent of all employees in jobs that require intermediate qualifications are overqualified. This is explained by the lack of practical, company-related training. In Spain, Greece, Italy, but also in North Macedonia, Hungary and Romania, the proportion of 15-24 year-olds who are in company-based training is below 5 percent. At the same time there are z. For example, in Greece, Spain and North Macedonia around 40 to 50 percent of graduates in this age group have a higher secondary education and post-secondary education (i.e. ISCED levels 3 and 4). The proportion of young unemployed is higher, the lower the participation in in-company training. The tendency towards over-academicisation in southern Europe is exacerbated by the low level of spatial mobility in rural areas.

Spain

In a contribution from 2011, Ramos and Sanromá argue, in contrast to some of the studies mentioned above, that unemployed highly qualified people in Spain look for too long for a job that matches their qualifications and that they accept too long periods of (voluntary) unemployment. In the case of Spain, however, one cannot speak of overeducation, as false incentives were set here for years, as a result of which many young people without adequate schooling and vocational training were able to achieve high wages in the construction industry as unskilled workers. Spain has a school dropout rate of 28 percent, which is largely due to false incentives. The school programs of post-secondary education are also often of short duration and of dubious practical relevance.

Italy

In Italy , the lack of practical work experience is seen as the main problem facing the overqualified. An Italian study suggests that the employment of academics below their qualification level is the result of involuntary long periods of unemployment. This is especially true for humanities scholars. A study by the University of Calabria based on the professional biographies of the unemployed shows that overqualified people remain unemployed longer and suffer greater wage losses over a longer period of time than their suitably qualified peers.

There are also other factors, such as young people staying too long in their families of origin. These influencing factors mutually reinforce each other negatively: While young people in Italy leave their families on average at 28 years of age, the corresponding age in Germany is 23 and in Sweden 20. Almost 65 percent of 18 to 34 year olds in Italy live with at least one parent. The family replaces the welfare state and hinders the start of work, the regional labor market equalization and also emigration, although 4 out of 10 young Italians would in principle be willing to emigrate if they were long-term unemployed. The same applies to Spain. However, from 2003/04 to 2009/10, the number of first-year students in Italy fell by 14 percent. Funding for public universities has been reduced even more. However, in response to the employment crisis, the number of students at private universities has more than doubled.

Greece

In Greece , unlike in Italy, the willingness of highly qualified young people to emigrate is quite high. Most of the young unemployed people in Greece do not receive any state support because they went straight to unemployment from school or university and have never paid any social security contributions. Rather, the danger of massive talent drain is invoked here.

Portugal

Portugal evidently represents an extreme European case: Here the returns on education for insufficiently qualified workers, i.e. the individual return on investment in training, are even significantly higher than for adequately or overqualified workers. This is an indication of the prevalence of low-level jobs in agriculture, construction, etc., which are accessible with low formal qualifications and after fewer school years. The situation in Ireland is similar, if less extreme .

Third world and emerging markets

Due to the slow expansion of the public higher education system and the lack of training places in companies, the number of private universities with high profit expectations is growing rapidly in many countries. B. in Chile and some countries in Africa and Asia . In many cases, this leads to the establishment of mini-universities with a narrow range of subjects but high tuition fees. Here the students are often only suggested that they will achieve a professional qualification through their studies or that their certificates can be recognized internationally. In this context, one should speak of “sham academization”.

In many countries of the Third World, but also in emerging countries, there is no general surplus of academics, but rather a mismatch in terms of the subjects in demand in the country, so that graduates of other subjects are forced to emigrate. Because of the often underdeveloped private sectors of the economy or those that are not very attractive to the educated elite, many academics are looking for public service positions, but these are not available in sufficient numbers. So is z. For example, there is high migration pressure on academics in Morocco, as the subject structure of the majority of graduates hardly corresponds to the structure of the industry and the needs of the labor market. But also the Moroccan students trained in Germany have only few career opportunities in their home country because of the subjects they prefer (mostly computer science or electrical engineering), as agricultural engineers, textile, civil and hydraulic engineers are more in demand in Morocco.

Causes of the excessive urge for higher education and professional qualifications

Legal and institutional requirements

According to Article 12 of the German Basic Law , every German has the right to “freely choose a profession, workplace and training facility”. Anyone who meets the formal entry requirements for starting a course of study or exercising a profession can choose an appropriate training or career path, provided that there are places available for them. A valid obstacle to the admission to higher education is for applicants with a university entrance qualification , especially the number of available places is (next to obstacles such. As the requirements, Latin skills at a certain level or successfully completed internships having to prove).

On the one hand, the state is not obliged to adapt the number of study places to the demand for these, and may practice selection procedures such as the application of a numerus clausus . On the other hand, those wishing to study with a university entrance qualification may not be prevented from starting a degree in art history or sociology, for example, on the grounds that there is little demand for graduates of this degree on the labor market, as long as they can prove that there are free places in their desired subject gives. The Federal Constitutional Court judges occupational guidance (as was customary at the time of National Socialism in the German Reich and later in the GDR ) and an examination of the needs of the labor market by the state as a basis for the allocation of study places as inadmissible.

Misleading useful signals

In an effort to occupy market niches, many universities developed specialized bachelor’s degree programs or part-time master’s degrees, the professional qualification of which was postulated rather than proven. Even an accreditation process can hardly prevent this. In connection with an over-specialized and abbreviated engineering training that he criticized (there are almost 30 specializations in civil engineering today), Norbert Gebbeken speaks of a “sham academization” which assigns the responsibility for checking the content to the customers or the chambers of engineers. The benefit signals sent negligently or with promotional intent by universities in the competition for applicants can provoke incorrect assessments of the requirements and career opportunities of these courses among those asking for study places and incorrect ideas about their applicability among graduates.

Individual misjudgments

The cause of over-academization or an (allegedly) "useless" accumulation of human capital among individual workers (or the attempt to reach them) is usually seen as the wrong estimate of the benefits of a university degree or extended secondary education, which then leads to unemployment or to school - or drop out of studies. This “wrong” benefit assessment can be caused by one's own status considerations and unrealistic income expectations, but also by influences from parents, peer groups or advisors. Due to insufficient suitability or incorrect assessment of practical professional requirements, those with high formal qualifications can later prove to be “not employable ” or not sufficiently resilient in the desired profession and fail early in their professional practice due to a lack of important skills. Ultimately, chosen subject combinations can prove to be unsuitable or insufficient for academic or professional success.

Wrong incentives in the education system, e.g. B. due to benevolent assessments of individual career opportunities or the ability to study by educators, can reinforce the wrong decisions mentioned. Despite ever better school qualifications, more and more young people struggle with a lack of basic skills right from the start of their studies.

In the case of “escape academization”, individual people with professional experience try to escape the stresses of everyday working life, which they now find frustrating, by striving for management positions in their professional area for which a degree is an entry requirement. The low demand for graduates (e.g. nursing management) is often underestimated. German hospitals are reluctant to hire academic nurses because they (and from the perspective of potential employers in principle rightly) expect higher pay than normal nurses. However, this expectation is not taken into account in collective agreements. Higher personnel costs would often place an excessive burden on the already tight budget of German hospitals and make it necessary to increase health insurance contributions.

The thesis that a degree in nursing only makes sense if the person concerned can actually take on management positions is questioned by proponents of an academization of the nursing professions: “Caring for sick or old people is becoming an increasingly complex task, also in view of the new technical possibilities in diagnosis and therapy. The demands on work and training have increased in several ways. In other countries such as the USA, Great Britain, Sweden or the Netherlands it has been a matter of course for many years that medical professionals are trained at university level. This is partly due to the lack of a vocational training system, but also to the realization that patient care is more than washing, feeding and going to the toilet. ”So it is perceived less and less as strange when“ normal nurses ”have a bachelor's degree would have.

Wrong assessment of the development of the labor market situation

Temporary high demand for a single occupational group can lead to the phenomenon of sectoral over-academicization - possibly with the formation of a pig cycle - as well as a wrong assessment of structural change in the economy, i.e. H. to a wrong assessment of the labor market situation. It is typical for this group of cases that experts also often come to misjudgments. In general, there is a problem that at the beginning of an apprenticeship one should actually be able to know what the labor market situation will be like at the point in time at which one is available to the labor market as a fully trained worker. However, it is often difficult to forecast the situation in five or more years. It is particularly difficult to predict the behavior of the state as a potential employer. For example, the number of police officers, teachers or social workers employed depends heavily on political decisions and these in turn are influenced by the financial situation of the state. Specifically, z. B. unclear how those countries will behave that have decided to reintroduce a 13th year of schooling at their grammar schools, d. H. how many of the additionally required high school teachers will actually be employed in the year in which there will be no Abitur.

Incorrect labor market forecasts are of course not only possible under market conditions, but also under planned economic conditions. B. because of an overly optimistic assessment of the pace of technical development. So were from the Cybernetics - euphoria of the late 1960s in the out DDR skilled workers for Automatic machinery and equipment longer, but obviously too early for half a year than other skilled workers and trained in far too widely, since the corresponding special equipment was hardly available. Therefore, to a large extent, they were used like ordinary electricians.

criticism

Inaccurate operationalization of the "economic bad investment" category

Econometric studies on the phenomenon of overeducation such as B. those by Baert, Cockx and Verhaest mostly only take into account the duration of the secondary or tertiary full-time school education in years. Too little distinction is made here whether z. For example, a skilled worker is employed in a semi- skilled occupation and has good chances of advancement to a group or band leader, for example, or whether a humanities scholar applies as an agent in a job center . Just like the concept of return on education , these studies neglect hard-to-measure factors such as motivation, the relationship between basic education and specialist specialization, or the learning culture. These studies also rarely make a sufficient distinction according to whether the overqualified entry into employment is the result of a voluntary search strategy or the only way out after a long period of unemployment.

Investments in cultural capital (certificates) can prove to be a failure, in particular, if the owner does not have access to the relevant positions due to insufficient social capital (lack of networking) - think, for example, of the role of membership in student associations that ensure access to useful in certain positions. In this context Didier Eribon speaks of the self-exclusion of the classes populaires .

In the empirical economic analysis of gender differences with regard to overacademicization or overeducation, the influences of German tax law (especially the splitting of spouses ) on the employment behavior of women and their educational returns are neglected.

Calling into question the homo economicus perspective

More fundamental is the objection that the subjective and objective value of a course of study for the individual and his / her identity formation cannot be grasped with economic and econometric categories alone (“educational value”, “education as consumption”, “non-monetary return on education” or cultural capital) . It is doubted that real people would typically do cost-benefit calculations in exactly the same way as the model human " homo oeconomicus " constructed by economics. For example, a person with a university degree may be able to argue in a more differentiated manner than a non-academic and often better place individual issues in a larger context.

In 2009, Jutta Ecarius and Kathrin Wahl found out that children from educated middle-class families and schoolchildren who successfully passed the Abitur tended to have a “legitimate understanding of education”. This does not aim exclusively at immediate usability, but integrates education for the sake of education as well as personality-related aspects. In the tradition of humanism, the aim is to "ennoble people through education."

The fact that intrinsically motivated students consciously ignore the warnings of the "homo oeconomicus" is shown by the fact that many z. B. Studying sociology or art history , although it has been common knowledge for decades that the demand for graduates in these subjects is consistently far below the supply.

However, various studies show that people in general tend to follow the "homo oeconomicus" in themselves, in that a "good salary" and the achievement of a "respected social position" have become more important to them in choosing a subject than before the Bologna- Reform . Accordingly, security, income and opportunities for advancement play a major role in the choice of subject today; the desire to maximize individual intellectual competencies, e.g. For example, the question of whether a doctorate is worthwhile does not even arise, is not a priority in this perspective. It is more about an optimization problem in terms of effort (time, effort, money) and yield (income, status).

Overqualification

Many candidates are rejected as "overqualified" for an advertised job position. Many recruiters assume that overqualified candidates are less satisfied with their position and will soon quit because of the boreout syndrome . A “suitable” candidate is therefore preferred to smarter, better educated and more experienced candidates. The fear that a highly qualified person will not be subordinate to less well-versed people or that a less well-versed person will react intimidated to the specialist also plays a role here.

Studies have shown that overqualified candidates are actually more dissatisfied, but also more productive and stay in their position for as long as less qualified. If these people are also given more freedom of choice, satisfaction also increases.

Underqualification

In particular, those students who have a bachelor's degree but are not admitted to a master’s degree often find that they have reached a dead end. So you can z. For example, in most German countries you can only do a legal clerkship if you have completed your studies with a master’s degree. With a “ Bachelor of Education ” one cannot usually become a teacher in Germany, but at least one is not paid like a teacher with regular training. The federal states have so far only inadequately responded to the criticism of why “bachelors of education” are trained at all, when there is almost no demand for such trained persons without subsequent higher qualification, and not even compulsory internships as part of training. In North Rhine-Westphalia, for example, you need an aptitude internship, an orientation internship, a core internship, a 3-year bachelor's degree, a 2-year master’s degree and a legal clerkship as part of teacher training. The career prospects of the bachelor’s degree in business psychology, which is considered a “waiting loop” for psychology studies, are similarly limited . Such undesirable developments must u. a. can be attributed to the increasing competition of the (especially private) universities for new students in non-NC subjects, which concentrate on educational advancers and promise lower drop-out rates than the state universities; However, their graduates often fail because of the admission requirements for really professional master’s courses.

Broadcast reports

Andrea Lueg: AKADEMISIERUNGSWAHN - studies as a normal case , Deutschlandfunk - " Background " from March 30, 2015.

literature

Special issue: "Master - yes or no?". abi. your path to study and work. 41st year. 2017. Issue 2 (online) .
Rainer Dollase: Everyone wants “ABI” and “UNI”. About taboo causes of educational hysteria and educational arrogance. In: Paula Bodensteiner / Josef Kraus (eds.): Flood of academics versus shortage of skilled workers. Hanns Seidel Foundation. 2016. pp. 21–54 ( online ).
Joachim Möller: There is too much studying in Germany - right? In: Der Spiegel. August 20, 2013. (online) .
Julian Nida-Rümelin : The academization mania. On the crisis of vocational and academic education. Körber Foundation, 2014, ISBN 978-3-89684-161-2 .
PJ Sloane: Much ado about Nothing? What does the Overeducation Literature Really Tell us? In: F. Büchel, A. de Grip, A. Mertens (Eds.): Overeducation in Europe. Cheltenham 2004, pp. 11-45. ISBN 1-84376-361-3 .

Web links

Individual evidence

^ Hugo Müller-Vogg: The German academization mania The European. May 26, 2015.

↑ Kateřina Maršíková, Václav Urbánek: A comparison of educational mismatches across Europe. In: Economy + Management. 18 (2015) 4, pp. 24-38.

↑ Michael Grüttner : The Third Reich. 1933-1939. Gebhardt Handbook of German History, 10th edition. Volume 19. Stuttgart 2014, p. 454 ff. As early as 1938, Berlin university lecturers complained in a memorandum about the general reduction in the level of education (p. 461 f.)

↑ DPhV warns of the consequences of over-academization , Teachers' News, November 12, 2013, online ( Memento of November 5, 2014 in the Internet Archive ).

↑ See for example Eduard Heußen: Shortage of skilled workers or over- academization ? The future educational needs from the perspective of the company. Economy and politics: impulse, Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, May 2014, online: [1] (PDF).

↑ See the US-founded, globally active initiative Overeducation , which calls for penalties for employers who hire overqualified graduates.

↑ http://www.overeducation.org/overeducation-trap/ Accessed on August 27, 2014.

↑ Craftsman Otto Kentzler considers the trend towards academization to be fatal. Saarbrücker Zeitung, January 2, 2013, online: Interview with Otto Kentzler ( Memento from September 3, 2014 in the Internet Archive )

^ Wilfried Möhrle: Evaluation of the vocational training at the two-year higher vocational school (assistant professions). Hessen Agency, Report No. 745, Wiesbaden 2008, pp. 12 ff., 68 ff.

↑ OECD study: Good education saves Germans from falling. In: Die Welt, June 25, 2013, online: [2]

^ Karl-Heinz Dammer: Julian Nida-Rümelin and the “academization mania” . [Online http://bildung-wissen.eu/kommentare/julian-nida-ruemelin-und-der-akademisierungswahn.html ] September 11, 2013.

↑ Markus Linten / Sabine Prüstel: Academisation of the professional world. Selected bibliography . Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB) (Ed.). 2017.

↑ Health professions: On the way to academization . Medical journal . 2012

^ Scientific Council: Recommendations on University Qualifications for the Health Care System . July 13, 2012

^ German Professional Association for Nursing Professions (DBfP): Further development of care . 2015

^ Association of Physical Therapy (VPT): AG academization and science in physiotherapy

^ Deutscher Bundesverband für Logopädie eV (dbl): Academization without exception: Speech therapy belongs to the university . Speech therapy forum . Issue 1/2013

↑ Sabine Mertel / Cornelia Wustmann: Academization versus non-academization of educator training . University of Applied Science and Art (HAWK) Hildesheim / Holzminden / Göttingen. 2004

^ Nursing Chamber of Lower Saxony: Report on the situation in the nursing professions 2018, December 2018, accessed on January 22, 2019 .

^ Sandra Salmans: SPRING REPORT; Child Care Wars. New York Times, April 9, 1989.

↑ http://www.vox.com/2014/6/4/5771902/how-being-overeducated-in-your-first-job-hurts-you-later-in-your Being overeducated in your first job hurts you later in your career , vox, com, June 4, 2014.

↑ Mark Roche: What German universities can learn from American universities and what they should avoid. Felix Meiner, Hamburg 2014.

^ Tilmann Warnecke: US students have over a trillion dollars in debt. In: tagesspiegel.de, July 28, 2014.

↑ Criticism of the EU Strategy 2020. , faz.net, updated March 16, 2010.

↑ Jan Grossbarth: Will everyone soon have to study? In: FAZ, February 26, 2014, online: [3]

↑ See Joachim Möller, 2013.

↑ Federal Ministry of Education and Research: Vocational Training Report 2017 , Bonn, 2017, p. 12 f.

↑ Why migrants fail more often in their studies . Deutschlandfunk Kultur, June 1, 2017.

↑ Martin R. Textor: Educator training: between academization and elementarization . The Kita-Hindbuch.

↑ Hans-Martin Barthold: The academization mania - potential-specific training instead of educational leveling . Job report. 15th November 2016.

↑ Business complains about Bachelor graduates. In: Spiegel Online , April 23, 2015, [4]

↑ JobTrends 2015 ( Memento from August 8, 2016 in the Internet Archive )

↑ Christina Boll et al. a .: Overeducation - New Evidence for 25 European Countries. IAB Discussion Paper 35/2016, p. 12 ff.

↑ Kateřina Maršíková, Václav Urbánek: A comparison of educational mismatches across Europe. In: Ekonomie + Management , 18 (2015) 4, pp. 24–38.

↑ Bettina Schuck: Better overeducated than unemployed? On-line

^ Eg Nils Schmid in the education strike in 2011, see [5] .

↑ Rolf Becker, Anna Etta Hecken: Why are working-class children distracted from studying at universities? In: Kölner Zeitschrift für Soziologie und Sozialpsychologie , 60 (2008) 1, p. 22 ff.

↑ Christina Boll, Julian Sebastian Leppin: Overeducation among graduates: An overlooked facet of the gender pay gap? Evidence from East and West Germany. DIW, SOEPpapers 2627, 2014, online: [6] (PDF).

↑ Myths of Work. There is too much studying in Germany - right? . Career mirror . August 20, 2013

^ Federal Association of German Employers' Associations / Federation of German Industry: We need everyone! Strengthen vocational and academic education - leverage potential . December 2014. p. 4 (3)

↑ Job traffic light . "The star"

^ Karl-Heinz Reith: The flagship lurches. In: E & W. Edition 10/2017, p. 18f.

↑ Konrad Paul Liessmann: Witching Hour. The practice of ignorance. Zsolnay, Vienna 2014

↑ Stijn Baert, Bart Cockx, Dieter Verhaest: Overeducation at the start of the career: Stepping stone or trap? In: Labor Economics. Volume 25, December 2013, pp. 123-140; as IZA Discussion Paper online: [7] .

↑ Christina Boll et al. a .: Overeducation - New Evidence for 25 European Countries. IAB Discussion Paper 35/2016, p. 11.

↑ Jörg Thomä: Economic advantages of vocational training. Lecture, Hildesheim 2013, online: [8] , p. 12.

^ Paul Ramos, Esteban Sanromá: Overeducation and Local Labor Markets in Spain. IZA Discussion Paper No. 6028, Bonn, October 2011, online: [9] .

↑ Patrizia Ordine, Giuseppe Rose: Educational Mismatch and the Upshots of Unemployment Scarring. University of Calabria, online: (PDF) ( Memento from March 12, 2016 in the Internet Archive ).

↑ Patrizia Ordine, Giuseppe Rose: Educational mismatch and unemployment scarring. In: International Journal of Manpower , 36 (2015) 5, pp. 733-753, doi : 10.1108 / IJM-03-2013-0048 .

^ Paola Villa: I giovani e il mercato de lavoro in Italia. In: La Rivista delle Politiche Scoiali. Issue 3, 2011, pp. 13–42, especially p. 35.

↑ Felice Roberto Pizzuti: Questione giovanile, crisi global e politiche sociali nell'Unione Europea e in Italia. In: La Rivista delle Politiche Scoiali. Issue 3, 2011, pp. 167–188, especially p. 175.

↑ Alexander Demling, Lucia Weiss, Dominik Peters: How Greece alienates its young elite. In: The time. August 26, 2011, online: [10]

↑ Kateřina Maršíková, Václav Urbánek: A comparison of educational mismatches across Europe. In: Ekonomie + Management, 18 (2015) 4, p. 34.

↑ Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung's Morocco office , accessed on May 27, 2015.

↑ Federal Employment Agency: The career guidance from the beginning until today . Hamm. May 2012, p. 16

↑ Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk : Kinder des Ostens - Desired career: Occupational guidance was very important . 5th January 2016

^ Judgment of the Federal Constitutional Court of July 18, 1972

↑ Sustainability and Innovation. Edited by the Faculty of Civil Engineering and Environmental Sciences at the University of the Federal Armed Forces in Munich 2013 [11] (PDF), p. 93.

↑ Christine Henry-Huthmacher, Elisabeth Hoffmann (Ed.): Qualification for training and ability to study. Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, St. Augustin, Berlin 2016. online (pdf)

↑ Pflegewiki: Flucht-Akademisierung .

↑ Charlotte Rohlwink: Nursing studies: More than "Master of bedpan"? . DocCheck Medical Services GmbH. April 23, 2014

↑ Marion Schmidt: The Bachelor comes to bed . Time online . November 14, 2013

↑ Lothar Starke: From hydraulic regulators to process control systems: The success story of the Askania-Werke Berlin and the device and regulator works in Teltow. 140 years of industrial history, tradition and future. Berlin 2010, p. 174.

↑ Jutta Ecarius / Kathrin Wahl: Educational significance of family and school. Family habitus, educational standards and social reproduction - reflections following Pierre Bourdieu . In: Jutta Ecarius / Carola Groppe / Hans Malmede (eds.): Family and public education. Theoretical conceptions, historical and current analyzes . Wiesbaden. 2009, pp. 13–33

^ Ilka Benner: Educational disadvantage in the transition from school to work. Theoretical concepts and case studies from participant perspectives with special consideration of “gender” and “social origin” . Dissertation. University of Giessen . 2017. pp. 309 and 344

↑ See e.g. B. Axel Franzen, Sonja Pointner: The students' black box: Study motivation and behavior before and after the Bologna reform . BZH Bavaria , 2014 (pdf).

^ ^A ^b Andrew O'Connell: The Myth of the Overqualified Worker. Harvard Business Review, December 2010, accessed May 8, 2017 .

↑ Master of Education - The master of teaching . In: abi. your path to study and work . Volume 41, 2017. H. 2, p. 19

↑ KInfo of the FOM University , accessed May 16, 2017.

↑ Jan-Martin Wiarda: Are private universities the more open universities? In: www.zeit.de, November 2, 2016.

[1] Hugo Müller-Vogg: The German academization mania The European. May 26, 2015.

[2] Kateřina Maršíková, Václav Urbánek: A comparison of educational mismatches across Europe. In: Economy + Management. 18 (2015) 4, pp. 24-38.

[3] Michael Grüttner : The Third Reich. 1933-1939. Gebhardt Handbook of German History, 10th edition. Volume 19. Stuttgart 2014, p. 454 ff. As early as 1938, Berlin university lecturers complained in a memorandum about the general reduction in the level of education (p. 461 f.)

[4] DPhV warns of the consequences of over-academization , Teachers' News, November 12, 2013, online ( Memento of November 5, 2014 in the Internet Archive ).