Purpose: This study aims to explore a specific case of the alleged mismatch between higher education and employability by investigating long-term work life outcomes for graduates from a small university college in Sweden, and the associations between these outcomes and the graduates' social background, academic achievements and study approach in terms of labour market orientation and agency in studying.

Design/methodology/approach: The study is based on longitudinal data from initially 2,072 students from bachelor's degree programmes in 2007-2012. They were surveyed continuously throughout the programmes and then in 2020. Classification and regression tree (CRT) analyses were conducted to identify which subgroups within the population based on the independent variables (e.g. students' background and study orientation) that were associated with the dependent variables (work life outcomes).

Findings: Neither graduates' social background nor their academic achievement and study approach was associated with employment rate or income. Some dimensions of high labour market orientation and agency in studying were positively associated with holding a senior position at work. Several aspects of high levels of agency and labour market orientation were positively associated with subjective work life outcomes, such as for example perceived mastery of work.

Originality/value: This study contributes to further understanding of alleged mismatches between higher education and employability by using longitudinal data from a university college in a country with low graduate unemployment rates and low earnings dispersions. © 2024, Anders Nelson, Andreas Ivarsson and Marie Lydell.

Esports is a wide spread cultural phenomenon in the 21stcentury. It is a dominant youth cultural expression in many countries, from east to west, and the industry’s revenues increases exponentially each year. In 2018 the sum for that, only in the US, was $100 millions. Piggybacking on the sport phenomenon, at least nominally, it differs greatly from its elder sibling as to some decisive (arguably paradoxical) aspects: Its capitalist preconditions, its fundamental grassroots and community culture, and its conspicuous lack of, or inconsistencies regarding formalization, regulation and organization. In connection to this, and which this paper will delve into, another area in which esports hasn’t been thoroughly established is Higher education. There are numerous instances of how esports and Higher education have begun to mire during the last two decades. However, there is no comprehensive discussion yet on the conditions and arguments for their fusion based on the values it could create, supplementing the literature of how to meet the needs of the industry. Firstly, we will make a brief scan of its analogue counterpart sport to see how that phenomenon and cultural practice has fared in combination with Higher education. Secondly, we will look into the examples of how esport and Higher education have begun to mire by a state of the art review of the literature, and also the suggestions which relations they still might and ought to develop. Thirdly, we will discuss education in relation to the terminology and metaphors used to comprehend the whole phenomenon of esport scholarly. Here, concepts like ecosystem, industry, ecology, party, community, and culture will be focused. This terminological discussion is crucial for a sustainable relation between Higher education and esport and thus to secure a sustainable existence for esport in general. We suggest that, contrary to what have been case before, higher education should be regarded as a part of the esport ecosystem. The paper is concluded with some remarks and what the combination of education and esport has displayed, what it could develop into, and, perhaps what it shouldn’t do and become. This discussion is based the examples of collabaration with esports actors at Halmstad University, such as esports federations, esports high schools, and non profit organizations focussing young people and children with disabilities.

This study investigated labour-market orientations of students at a Swedish University with a dual/diverse focus on vocational/academic objectives. The aim was to investigate whether and how levels of students' labour-market orientation vary with social background, change during the study period, and are related to approaches to studying and achievements. The design was a multiple panel time-series study. Labour-market orientation was studied on the basis of locally designed questionnaires. Approaches to studying were analysed deductively in accordance with dimensions previously found by Study Process Questionnaires and inductively using a principal component analysis. Results suggest that labour-market orientations co-varied to a higher degree with the study programme than with social background. Contrary to what was hypothesized, being labour-market oriented was only moderately related to surface-oriented approaches to studying. It is suggested that future research should pay more attention to disciplinary traditions and local teacher and programme cultures in understanding developmental paths in labour-market orientation. © 2015 Society for Research into Higher Education

With an aim to better understand higher education’s potential for fostering personal development and social change, this study explores how students’ actorship in studies and civic engagement changed over time while enrolled in undergraduate programs at Halmstad University, Sweden. Additionally, it explores the relation among these students’ actorship, structural and psychosocial influences, and consequences in terms of formally obtained and self-reported achievements. Data were collected using three questionnaires in a time-step designed study, initially including 2004 students from 16 programs. Analyses revealed a trend of stable or decreasing actorship. Actorship was found to be strongly associated with gender and what programs the students attended, but not with social background factors such as parents’ education and family type. Psychosocial influences and actorship were marginally related to students’ achievements in terms of obtaining credits, but were more positively related to students’ own reports about gaining the knowledge and skills that would be useful for their future life and work. This, in combination with the students having high intentions to actively influence their future work, was interpreted as an indication of readiness to be social actors. This in turn suggests that readiness is a significant dimension in higher education, which might be further interpreted by applying theories about the Zone of Proximal Development. © 2015 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht

This text presents some analyses of 4- and 5-year-old children's video-taped play with gendered dolls and figures in a Swedish preschool setting. Based on sociocultural and semiotic theory, the analyses try to identify in what ways boys and girls play differ and how the play can be understood as mediated by the gendered character of the dolls and figures used. It was found that social and cultural gender stereotypes, represented in the dolls and figures used, were reflected in most of the play episodes that were analyzed. The boys play with figures representing masculine men were mainly instrumental and the boys identified themselves with the aggressive thematic built into the toys. Girls play with dolls representing feminine women was mainly relational as the girls were involved in inter-subjective relations with the dolls. This was found to be enabled and supported by the character of the feminine dolls themselves and their accessories. Some examples of children's strategies to overcome constraining designs of dolls were also found. © 2021. All rights reserved.

Higher education (HE) has changed from elite to mass education (HSV 2006:26R, Leathwood & Read 2009). In the last few decades, the number of women in higher education has increased substantially in most OECD countries. Sweden’s reform of HE in 1993 encourages university institu- tions to develop new degree programs (SFS 1993:100). This opened opportunities for the development of programs designed to attract women & men in equal numbers but the result was disappointing. According to a Swedish study, an increasing number of new degree programs attract almost exclusively one gender (Witt 2009, Nelson et al 2009). It is a well- established fact that technical educations are male-dominated while care- related educations are predominantly chosen by women. This paper inves- tigates the motivations for choice reported by 620 students in 17 programs. We have categorized these motives as follows: knowledge seeking; work- ing life orientation; shoulder responsibility for society; program design; second choice and “follow the map”. Moreover, the paper discusses how gender-segregated educational choices may affect the future opportunities of student in terms of professional careers, income development and, con- sequently, social standing & life styles. To study gender segregation within HE is like looking at a three dimensional picture. We can focus at different parts or images a one image shows the gender division among the students, another show the genderized division between program choices, while the third image is about the vertical gender division among teachers and researchers & their career opportunities. This paper deals with the first two.

Higher education (HE) has changed from elite to mass education (HSV 2006:26R, Leathwood & Read 2009). In the last few decades, the number of women in higher education has increased substantially in most OECD countries. Sweden ́s reform of HE in 1993 encourages university institutions to develop new degree programs (SFS 1993:100). This opened opportunities for the development of programs designed to attract women and men in equal numbers but the result was disappointing. According to a Swedish study, an increasing number of new degree programs attract almost exclusively one gender (Witt 2009, Nelson et al 2009). It is a well- established fact that technical educations are male-dominated while care-related educations are predominantly chosen by women. This paper investigates the motivations for choice reported by 620 students in 17 programs. We have categorized these motives as follows: knowledge seeking; working life orientation; shoulder responsibility for society; program design; second choice and “follow the map”. Moreover, the paper discusses how gender-segregated educational choices may affect the future opportunities of student in terms of professional careers, income development and, consequently, social standing and life styles. To study gender segregation within HE is like looking at a three dimensional picture. We can focus at different parts or images – one image shows the gender division among the students, another show the genderized division between program choices, while the third image is about the vertical gender division among teachers and researchers and their career opportunities. This paper deals with the first two.

I det följande sammanfattar vi de resultat som framstår som mest centrala i studien. Det första vi vill lyfta fram är att studenterna som läser ett grundutbildningsprogram på Högskolan har gjort ett positivt val i den bemärkelsen att de inte har valt högreutbildning för att slippa vara arbetslösa. Studenterna på högskolan värderar både utbildningarnas bildande som yrkesorienterade aspekter som viktiga. I de data som analyserats har vi dock sett att utbildningens betydelse för det kommande yrkeslivet ges allt större betydelse efter hand som de studerar. En annan betydelsefull förändring som skett mellan det första och andra mättillfället är att intresset för ochden upplevda möjligheten att påverka sin egen utbildning sjunker avsevärt. När detgäller studenternas prestationer efter det första studieåret kan vi konstatera att devarierar, och att faktorerna kön och kulturell bakgrund har betydelse. Kvinnor ochstudenter med nordisk bakgrund presterar betydligt bättre än män och studentermed utomnordisk bakgrund. Traditionella sociala bakgrundsfaktorer somföräldrarnas utbildning och yrke visade sig inte han den betydelse för prestationernasom man kan förvänta sig utifrån tidigare studier.

This article reports on a study of gender differences in course experiences and achievement of students taking the introductory educational sciences course at Halmstad University in Sweden. Male and female students' completion rates and grades were analysed in relation to the students' grade point averages (GPAs) from upper secondary school and their experiences of the conditions for learning provided by the teachers as well as their own actorship in the course. Based on the idea that the subject of educational sciences and the characteristics of the educational context and setting are more feminine than masculine, the male students were expected to have lower completion rates and grades. A gender difference in completion rates was confirmed, in that 65% of the male and 80% of the female students completed the whole course. Male students also rated the conditions for learning provided by the teacher as well as their own actorship in the course lower than did their female peers. In order to reduce the drop-out of male students, it is suggested that the department/teachers should pay more attention to any gendered aspects of the teaching/learning practices as well as to the educational context in general.

The study aimed to investigate how students in an introductory educational sciences course experienced and understood their own actorship during the course, in relation to conditions for learning created by the teachers. The analyses were based on students’ answers to an evaluation questionnaire that produced both quantitative and qualitative data. Those students who experienced opportunities to influence the course activities also stated that they had contributed to the development of the course to a greater extent than did those who experienced no such opportunities. There was no correlation between not feeling informed about the conditions for the course and seeking complementary information. The analysis also generated five different categories based on how the students viewed their own actorship, varying from ‘no actorship since it is not meaningful’ to ‘Real actorship exists’. The results are discussed in relation to methodological reflections and as implications for increasing students’ actorship.