Higher Education

Higher education plays a crucial role in a society and labour market that are constantly changing. Technological innovations, social changes and new economic dynamics require programmes that prepare graduates with the knowledge and skills they will need in the future. At ROA, we investigate how well higher education succeeds in this regard: how programmes adapt to changing demands and to what extent graduates successfully find their way into the labour market.

To answer these questions, we combine different research methods. For more than thirty years, we have been monitoring the transition of higher professional education graduates to the labour market with the HBO Monitor. In collaboration with the Netherlands Association of Universities of Applied Sciences and individual universities of applied sciences, we collect large-scale data on labour market opportunities, competences and the match between study and work. For Maastricht University, we conduct similar research among alumni five and ten years after graduation using the UM Scanner, which provides insight into long-term career development.

In addition to survey research, we analyse how programmes develop in terms of content. Using AI-supported text analysis, we systematically map out which knowledge and skills are central to curricula. Interviews with programme directors and graduates also give us a rich picture of how programmes are adapting to social and technological changes.

With projects such as the HBO Monitor, the UM Scanner and the European Skills2Capabilities project, we provide scientifically based and up-to-date insights for researchers, educational institutions and policymakers who want to understand how higher education contributes to a resilient society and a future-proof labour market.