Admission conditions and graduates' employability

• Autor(a) principal: Alexandre, Fernando
• Data de Publicação: 2008
• Outros Autores: Portela, Miguel, Sá, Carla Angélica da Silva Pinto de
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/1822/7877
• topic: Higher education; Unemployment propensity; Fractional models

We evaluate the information content of admission conditions for study programs’ quality by investigating its relationship with graduates’ employability. We find that study programs with larger numeri clausi are associated with a higher probability of finding a job. Additionally, compulsory admission exams seem to be informative about study programs’ quality. Namely, study programs requiring the Math exam appear to be linked with lower unemployment propensity. Cardoso et al. (2008), however, found that those programs face lower demand when compared to other studies. These paradoxical results suggest that students’ choices may be based on insufficient information on returns to higher education investment. That information failure indicates that a Government intervention may be due.