INCHER

Durch den stetigen Anstieg der Studierenden in Deutschland wird ein abgeschlossenes Hochschulstudium zunehmend zur Normalität und prägt die persönlichen und beruflichen Biographien von immer mehr Menschen. Mit der kontinuierlichen Zunahme der Absolventenzahlen gewinnen wissenschaftliche Studien zu Hochschulabsolventinnen und -absol¬venten eine immer höhere Bedeutung für die Gesellschaft. Der vorliegende Sammelband enthält Analysen aus dem „Kooperationsprojekt Absolventenstudien (KOAB)“ zu den unterschiedlichen Erfahrungen der Absolventinnen und Absolventen mit ihrem Studium und dem Einstieg in den Arbeitsmarkt. Zusätzlich wird thematisiert, mit welchen Ansprüchen Absolventenstudien heutzutage verbunden sind und wie sich die tatsächliche Nutzung im Rahmen der Hochschulentwicklung gestaltet. Das „Kooperationsprojekt Absolventenstudien (KOAB)“, das die Datenbasis für die hier präsentierten Metaanalysen liefert, wird vom International Center for Higher Education Research der Universität Kassel (INCHER-Kassel) gemeinsam mit rund 70 Hochschulen durchgeführt.

This paper traces university graduates' mobility when entering the labour market after graduation. The empirical analysis utilizes a large-scale, survey-based dataset of individuals who graduated from thirty-six German universities in 2007. It applies a two-stage analysis examining both employability and the likelihood that a graduate will leave the university region after finding a job. Controlling for differences in employability, it is found that characteristics of the university region as well as graduates' contacts with local employers are key determinants of regional mobility when entering the labour market.

Abstract In this conceptual contribution to the study of university governance the
authors will approach potential patterns of behavior of key decision-makers at central
university level, i.e. roles of governance actors, as well as the set of factors that shape and
constrain the governance actor’s room of manoevre and provide avenues to explain varying
role enactments through an actor analysis of members of the newly introduced university
boards. In a first part the introduction and empowerment of university boards in European
higher education institutions is described as a building block of the transformation of
university governance. In the second part the main hypothesis derived is that, in governance
practice, board members enact roles which are not only shaped and constrained by
formal institutions, as given by the organizational context and regulatory structure, but also
by conformable, appropriate and legitimate role expectations of central role senders. As a
showcase analysis, the roles of university board members are conceptually explored.
Especially in the context of recent reform processes, board members who tend to have a
varied status set, very often find themselves in a troubling situation of conflicting role
expectations, leading to high levels of role conflicts and role ambiguity. It is the aim of this
paper to sketch and examine the factors that contribute to the different roles university
board members may take.

This self-ethnography complements the other articles in this special issue by spotlighting a set of key challenges facing international research teams. The study is focused on the relationship between information and communication technology (ICT)-based collaboration and research team dynamics. Our diverse team, drawn from researchers in five countries and three projects, argues that an ironic casualty of the powerful, global phenomena we study, is a lack of insight into what happens to generic research team dynamics, when groups are ‘stretched’ in terms of geographical distance, generations, cultural beliefs, values and norms, as well as disciplinary/specialist traditions. Good intentions are not sufficient to cope with these challenges. This is because of the emerging complexity inherent in many types of international, interdisciplinary fields of study and the complexity of the career trajectories needed to make these studies a reality. Our study underlines that there are no beliefs, values, norms and practices linked to research team dynamics, that hold across the current territory, generations, disciplines, cultures, organizations and individuals leading and conducting comparative studies—and even less reflection on the implications of this fact. Compounding this lack of awareness is a less-than-perfect understanding of the way in which ICT-based collaboration bears on research team dynamics. We assert that a holistic, critical, long-term approach to emerging insights into the global division of academic labor, serves our field better than folk psychology or the methodological parochialism that sustains convention at the expense of creativity. Careful consideration of emergent processes, relationships and linkages that explain how short-term cooperation—within projects—begins to make sense—over careers—illuminates key focal points, which, in turn qualitatively illuminates the way forward concerning conceptualization and problematization of our practice; and novel methodological routes available for those interested in attaining better outcomes, over the long term.