Proceedings of the 11th International Academic Conference, Reykjavik

INSTITUTIONAL EFFECTS ON BACHELOR-MASTER LEVEL TRANSITION – A CASE OF HUNGARY

ZSUZSANNA VEROSZTA, SZILVIA NYÜSTI

Abstract:

The results presented are based on the analysis of transition from higher education to work or further training. The study is focused on exploring determinants of BSc graduates’ decision to continue their studies at MA level or to enter the labor force in the context of the ’Bologna-type’ linear educational system introduced in Hungary in 2007. In our approach BA/MA transition is considered as an educational selection mechanism (Shavit and Blossfeld, 1993; Shavit et. al, 2007; Breen et. al, 2009) which is determined by several socio-demographic, meritocratic and institutional effects as it has been previously studied in the Hungarian context (Veroszta, 2013). In the current study we focus on the institutional determinants of decision between further study or labor market transition. The main research question is that after controlling for several background variables (i.e. social composition of the student body, excellence of students, academic staff or faculties, marketability of training) how to identify the components of institutional effects on transition. During the study a number of indicators - such as regional characteristics, institutional structure, training supply - are considered as institutional background variables. The paper applies explanatory models in order to respond the research questions. Many of data of the Hungarian Graduate Career Tracking System was integrated into the model from different databases. The analysis of the institutional effects is based on the administrative dataset of the Hungarian Higher Education Information System (FIR) covering the entire population of BSc graduates in a given year. Other effects are operationalized as macro level variables, created from a number of parallel data sources and linked into pre-defined institutional and training subgroups. Some of these macro level variables come from online survey based graduate career tracking database, while others come from the administrative dataset of the centralized Hungarian higher education admission system.

Keywords: higher education, transition, bachelor, master, institutional effects

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