I think if the university offers a course, at least at higher education level, it should be responsible to provide all possible help in student placement. It can be done two ways:

1. Departmental level : the faculty members n Dean who interact with students most of the time should, with a student-centric approach, hold frequent brainstorms to determine the interest of students, as also their proficiency and temperament with respect to job-areas of their choice. Apart from imparting knowledge and required hands-on skills the students should be engaged in frequent class seminars with presentations n defense of the chosen class topic. Apart from gaining clarity on class subjects, this is a good exercise in confidence building and communication skills. Once the job-niche is decided, the student should be exposed by way of meaningful internships to relevant industry (not just any industry, as happens often) followed by a longer period of dissertation in the relevant industry. This prolonged period towards the end of the course provides the industry also to assess the student, n if the student has been groomed well, to absorb him/her on the next availability of vacancy.

2. University Administration level : A Corporate Resource Centre (CRC) should be established with the sole purpose of imparting presentation and communication skills. CRC should establish a thoro' inventory of concerned industry in the area n liaise with them, organise frequent industry-visits n 'meet the prominent industry people lectures' apart from Mock interviews.

The School of Biosciences (Centre for Biosciences n Clinical Research), Apeejay Stya University, aided by CRC, follows this strategy- n we are proud of 100% placement in well known industry houses as well as academics.

Dear Amir,

This is a dangerous question.

Universities may have responsibility in two or several ways and all of them are tied to their commercialization. Universities were originally the citadels of human spirit whose main task was to train talented young men for the glory, honour and service of God, for the development of human abilities and the welfare of society with the progress of science. Society “development” transformed these tasks and the commercialization became the most important university performance: mass production of degree holders and of commercial or marketable scientific products for investors. One can also mention that scientific achievements, activity and mercenary scientists contributed to the devastation of environment. These are the consequences of a way of life where the most important thing is profit and many scientists became servants of the capital. However, some of them are well paid.

Please, also look at https://www.researchgate.net/post/Is_a_PhD_a_PhD

As to the question on future career of students: Trainings are planned and determined by managers and for them the profit is imperative thus short term aims are essential and not objectives of society and this leads inevitably to the decrease of standards in teaching and knowledge level.

I think if the university offers a course, at least at higher education level, it should be responsible to provide all possible help in student placement. It can be done two ways:

1. Departmental level : the faculty members n Dean who interact with students most of the time should, with a student-centric approach, hold frequent brainstorms to determine the interest of students, as also their proficiency and temperament with respect to job-areas of their choice. Apart from imparting knowledge and required hands-on skills the students should be engaged in frequent class seminars with presentations n defense of the chosen class topic. Apart from gaining clarity on class subjects, this is a good exercise in confidence building and communication skills. Once the job-niche is decided, the student should be exposed by way of meaningful internships to relevant industry (not just any industry, as happens often) followed by a longer period of dissertation in the relevant industry. This prolonged period towards the end of the course provides the industry also to assess the student, n if the student has been groomed well, to absorb him/her on the next availability of vacancy.

2. University Administration level : A Corporate Resource Centre (CRC) should be established with the sole purpose of imparting presentation and communication skills. CRC should establish a thoro' inventory of concerned industry in the area n liaise with them, organise frequent industry-visits n 'meet the prominent industry people lectures' apart from Mock interviews.

The School of Biosciences (Centre for Biosciences n Clinical Research), Apeejay Stya University, aided by CRC, follows this strategy- n we are proud of 100% placement in well known industry houses as well as academics.

Universities cannot be held responsible with the performance and academic achievement of their students. The responsibility of a University is to provide the best possible professors body, the best academic program according to the development of the country, have good laboratories, classrooms, libraries and other facilities so that students can develop all your skills during the learning process, have the appropriate administrative structures that allow professors to meet the academic needs of students, among others, but the students should be responsible for the maximum use of the academic activities and for their academic achievements. At the same time, the University should be in a position to help its graduated students insearching for the most apropriate workplaces according to the knowledge acquired, but should not be responsible for the final ubication of their students.

Jorge, the pedagogical challenge facing universities is in your text: "the students should be responsible for the maximum use of the academic activities and for their academic achievements". Indeed, universities should provide to the best of their resources all of the resources needed for learning, and you have listed these resources quite clearly. Now, back to the pedagogical challenge. Let me focus on the following words in particular, because they go to the problem to be solved: "responsible for the maximum use". The challenge: How do we foster a sense of responsibility in students, in context of their learning environment, and in relation to their futures? I turn to career development learning for an answer to this question. It is my thesis that students will indeed maximise their learning experiences and resources if they are motivated to achieve according to their career identity and aspirations. Some recent research by myself and colleagues published in the Journal of Vocational Behaviour (McIlveen, Beccaria & Burton, 2013) found evidence that above and beyond conscientiousness, it is students sense of career optimism that predicts their engagement in learning. The beauty of this finding is that career optimism can be taught/learned. Therefore, if we amend, just ever so slightly, our approaches to teaching and learning so as to foster career optimism, we may find that our students become more able to be "responsible for the maximum use" of what resources are available to them. By doing so, their orientation to the world of work will be enhanced, which should concomitantly enhance their employability. So, yes, I do think universities have a role to play in the employability of their students. Above and beyond mere resources and inputs, it may come down to the pedagogy of curriculum-integrated career development learning.

I think that the question as asked is a definitely no.Universities should not be responsible for the careers of students. This is the responsibility of students and the job sector to match each others expectations. When students are given guarantees of being placed in a job if the make a__ grade that is what the 90% of the students will work for and no more (therefore being efficient in achieving the goal of meeting that expectation and not the expectation of being relevant to the job market). While I agree with Stephens statement that "career optimism that predicts their engagement in learning", it should not come by guarantees made by the universities but by other market sectors.

That being said universities should help students in:

a) Facilitating the job interview

b)Staying relevant into what the regional markets are looking for. That is, teaching courses according to what the markets are looking for in a young professional and therefore making him relevant to the current markets.

c) offering job fairs that also have work study programs. One of the values of these programs is that they have the opportunity to apply what they learn, therefore learning the value of the course. I think this is more effective than any other method in teaching students the reality of the workplace.

d) Having professors with private sector experience. They bring to the classroom work related scenarios on which to put in context what students learn.

BTW: I think this is a very important question and highly relevant discussion to have ad view different perspectives and opinions. Thanks!

Dear Amir,

I think the question is formulate in a too open way. In a research project (www.themp.eu), which we are carrying out about the social effectiveness of University Adult Education, we asked for the impact of university adult education programmes on the labour market. The question can be extended to the university education programmes as a whole.

Without reducing higher education only to its impact on the labour market position of the students in terms of employability and quality of work, the universities have responsiblities to facilitate students education and trainging, which open them the access to adequate work places.

All statistics show that higher educated people obtain mayor earning and better quality of work and life compared to low and medium educated people, But there are voices, wich considers that this situation is changing a) through the increasing international competition for knowledge work places and b) the standarisation of substantial part of knowledge work . And if we take into account that the EU has expressed in their new strategy the aim to achieve the level of universalisation of higher education, then we can ask if in the future, the bionom higher education - better work will be valide. In so far, the role of the university as education institution has changed in the last decades and will decades in the future decades. It provide knowledge workers, which is not a synonym for academic work. And the knowledge work is as all other works also submitted to a constant change, which requieres constant up-dating of knowledge, competences, skills and apptitudes. The question is, if universities play a role in this process and if so, which role. In the aformentioned project, we assumed that university adult education, that means education and training provided by the universityes, for people who have finalised their first education trajectory, are active in the labour market and want to take up again education activities, could play a relevant role in this process fulfilling their social responsability.

Dear Arturo,

Universities have quite a big responsibility because they advertise permanently – depending on particular teaching institutions – how big career they (the university or college) provide with their degrees for students. It is logical because for most university degrees are a marketable product mockingly one can say also graduate “students” are a kind of product. I may be wrong but I think if an institution promises an enormous career and outstanding working opportunity for students this institution has a considerable responsibility. And they did and do it.

Dear Karsten,

I am a humble teacher of entomology and ecology with more than 25 years of university teaching background. Unfortunately, I do not think that EU directives would be useful for the quality of teaching or those of the degrees. The EU enforced BSc teaching regulation was only a quality decreasing action for whole Europe. Hordes of untalented, ignorant and uncultivated people can now swing their diplomas which are only pieces of paper and prove that their owner passed 3 years at a college or university and the number of these people has been put into statistics. I do not know what “universalisation of higher education” is. I have no idea who ”knowledge workers” are. I am afraid this expression has nothing to do with real knowledge. As to your comment on permanent updating of knowledge this was necessary centuries ago, too.

Well, who are knowledge workers? Who can produce them and why?

Hi Amir,

This is a very interesting question in terms of organisation theory.

Some universities put effort into supporting the career aspirations of their graduates because of the potential feedback loop. All universities welcome good graduate outcomes, it can be part of the way they market their programs to potential students and attract high calibre staff. The Marketing Department of a university with a graduate who becomes a Nobel Prize winner will probably not cease reminding any of its audiences of this fact. Apart from using the success of graduates as a recruitment tool, it can also be useful as a lever for potential philanthropic support. This is something of increasing importance with the decline of public funding over time in the higher education sector of many nations.

In terms of organisation theory it raises the question, where do you draw the boundaries of the organisation? Does it encompass just current staff and students or should it embrace current and past staff and students and any other networks that interact with the organisation?

University is a holy entrance for the students to get himself acquainted with the process of their development for their future growth of their life.

Teachers should offer the worthy mode of their example in their knowledge ,behavior ,& moral code of their life.This will have and quite good impact on students.However it is up to the student to take the advantage with their responsibility for their career .

It is only up to the students to take the advantage of their life career for which university should not be responsible .

This is only my personal opinion.

University is a holy entrance for the students to get himself acquainted with the process of their development for their future growth of their life.

Teachers should offer the worthy mode of their example in their knowledge ,behavior ,& moral code of their life.This will have and quite good impact on students.However it is up to the student to take the advantage with their responsibility for their career .

It is only up to the students to take the advantage of their life career for which university should not be responsible .

This is only my personal opinion.