International Journal of Chinese Education

The extent to which and how curricula, teaching and learning in higher education should be shaped to prepare students for their subsequent work and for activities in other life spheres has been a frequently and often controversially discussed theme in economically advanced countries since about the 1950s. The increase of the graduation rates from less than 5% to about 50% on average was often hailed as a contribution to economic growth and often criticized as leading to ‘over-education’ and increasing ‘mismatches’ between the graduates’ competences and the demands of the employment system. Over the years, insight gained momentum that many general judgements are misleading, because they tend to put too much emphasis on market cycles, try to infer too much from employment indicators about the substantive relationships between learning, competences and work and because they underestimate the diversity both in higher education and in graduate work tasks which grew enormously over time. Moreover, empirical research showed an impressive variety between countries as regards the concepts of higher education and the expected links between learning and subsequent work. In recent years, the term ‘employability’ became most widely used in the United Kingdom, but also spread internationally to some extent. It reflected the intention of its advocates to gear higher education instrumentally to the presumed need of the employment system. But views continued to vary in the recent discussions about the links between higher education and the world of work, whether more specialized preparation for the expected work tasks or more emphasis on general competences is preferable. At times, prime emphasis was directed to the question how elite higher education prepares for the ‘knowledge economy’, and at times the role of mass higher education for the intermediate level occupations was viewed as the most salient issue. Some concepts considered the student primarily as a ‘homo oeconomicus’, while other concepts underscore the importance of critical thinking, of freedom of learning in order to develop innovative ideas and of preparation for life in a ‘post-industrial’ society. The discourse can be viewed as a never-ending dispute or as driven by the persistent hope that a higher level of reflection might lead eventually to better solutions.

A wide range of rationales can be used to expand participation in higher education. It is commonly believed that a highly educated workforce serves as a primary driver in elevating the productivity and efficiency of the industrial sector in general. Empirical evidence even suggests that over a lifetime, university graduates earn more than those with other educational attainments. 1 However, an emerging counter-argument states that the supply of graduates might exceed the demand as there are not many graduate-level job vacancies. Against such a broad context, this article adopts longitudinal and comparative stances to investigate the extent to which higher education expansion is related to the unemployment rate in three East Asian societies: Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan. Our empirical data show that the massification of higher education does matter, particularly beyond enrollment rates of more than 50%. Although universal access to higher education provides a more highly skilled workforce to knowledge-based economies, it might also lead to a higher unemployment rate, particularly in South Korea and Taiwan.

Countries across the East and Southeast Asia region are experiencing a remarkable expansion of tertiary education enrollments. In this context, the strategic alignment of tertiary education institutions with rapidly changing economic environments has become increasingly necessary to meet the emerging needs of individual students, businesses, and wider economies. This paper maps the current state of alignment between tertiary education and labor markets in the region. Particular focus is given to second- and third-tier institutions, which have played a crucial role in enabling the expansion of enrollments and serving the diverse needs of societies. Policy guidelines are outlined and discussed to enhance alignment; namely the improvement of public-private partnerships, regional cooperation, external efficiency accountability, and fostering realistic expectations among graduates. Above all, it is maintained that the realization of such policy objectives will be pivotal to the future success of tertiary education institutions and can be pursued without undermining the broader educational functions of the tertiary education sector.

In 2012, the Central Council for Education (cce) issued a report concerning the introduction of active learning (al) and educational management into higher education. Its main object was to foster students’ ability of active learning (or active study [as]) to enable them not only to fulfill the outcome required by the dp (Diploma Policy) but also to respond to an unpredictable future in a knowledge-based society. In order to enhance students’ al, it is necessary to innovate educational methods, such as High Impact Practice (hip) and Institutional Research (ir), to establish educational management, including dp, cp (curriculum policy), and ap (admission policy), and to promote the Research-Teaching-Service (r-t-s) nexus. Based on the cce’s report, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (mext) started a nationwide program in 2013 to pursue active learning. As a result, the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (jsps) selected a project of a four-university collaboration as one of the projects related to the programs in which the author of this paper conducted a national survey with a focus on the institutionalization of academic learning in academia.

This study aims to explore internship experiences and their influence on job performance among university graduates in Korea. The research questions are as follows: 1) To what extent do university students engage in different types of internships in Korea? 2) How do internship experiences differ by academic fields and institutional types? 3) Does internship experience predict graduates’ job performance, namely their job search duration, wages, and job satisfaction? This study used the Korean Education and Employment Panel Survey (keep) data conducted by the Korea Research Institute for Vocational Education and Training (krivet). In this study, the data was selected from 1,184 respondents who graduated from high school in 2005 and became paid workers in any sector after graduating from a junior college or university. Data from 961 respondents were used in this study. The results show that internship experience improved job performance; it shortened the duration to find a job and enhanced wages and job satisfaction. The effects on job performance, however, differed by type of internship, academic major, institutional characteristics, and working condition. We explored the actual internship participation of university graduates in Korea and examined its impact empirically, offering implications for individuals, universities, and policymakers.

In the media and policy discourses in Singapore, comparisons have often been made with countries like Taiwan and South Korea to validate the Singapore government's long time policy approach of maintaining the cohort participation rate (cpr) in public universities at around 25% to 30%. Considering the rates of youth unemployment in Taiwan (12.7%) and South Korea (9.5%), where the cpr in universities has hovered around 80% to 90%, it would appear that the problem is one of an over-supply of graduates. While Singapore has maintained a commitment to skills training and to fostering a well-resourced polytechnic sector and the technical and vocational education sector, the government announced in 2012 its plans to raise the country's cpr in universities to 40% by the year 2020. It established new public-autonomous universities to fulfill this goal, and expanded study places in existing universities, nevertheless with the proviso that internships would central to the curriculum, and that the degrees on offer would be well-tuned to the job shortages in the economy.

What policy and political factors explain this change in Singapore's long-held approach to the cpr for universities, especially when compared to the cases of Taiwan and South Korea? This paper offers an explanation of the policy and politics that underpinned the issue of the number of university places in Singapore, and also an explanation of the Singapore government's shift in policy in 2012—albeit a policy move that took place within the context and language of the government's new SkillsFuture programme, in which the education institutions are expected to continue to be well plugged into the needs of industries.