Early Careers of Tertiary Graduates in Poland: Employability, Earnings, and Differences between Public and Private Higher Education

• Published in: Polish sociological review Vol. 202; no. 2; pp. 187 - 208
• Main Authors: Jasiński, Mikołaj, Zając, Tomasz, Bożykowski, Marek
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Warsaw Polish Sociological Association 2018; Polskie Towarzystwo Socjologiczne; THE POLISH SOCIOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION; Polskie Towarzystwo Socjologiczne (Polish Sociological Association)
• Subjects: Careers; College graduates; Debates; Earnings; Educational systems; Employability; Employment; Higher education; Labor market; Scholarly Competence, Activities and Outcomes; Sociology; Poland; United States > US; Norway; Finland; labor market; Poland; higher education; graduate tracking; administrative data
• ISSN: 1231-1413; 2657-4276
• DOI: 10.26412/psr202.03

Poland's system of higher education has expanded rapidly in the last quarter century. Not all graduates of the massified educational system have succeeded in the labor market. Part of the public debate regarding the labor market performance of graduates focuses on the performance of graduates who attended private institutions and part-time programs. As yet, there has been no detailed research into the career paths of recent university graduates in Poland, let alone a comprehensive investigation of the differences between the performance of graduates of various types of studies. In this paper, we present the newly created Polish Graduate Tracking System. We use data from the system to evaluate the labor market performance of recent graduates and to demonstrate the differences between graduates of public and private education. Overall, the privately educated graduates fare better on the labor market, but a more in-depth analysis shows that this could be attributed to their strategy of early entry into the labor market.