What Germany and Romania have in common: The impact of university prestige on graduate employability

Abstract

The current paper focuses on analysing the impact of university prestige on the employment process of graduates. Representatives of recruitment companies and employers were interviewed to understand the ramifications of university prestige while selecting candidates for job openings. The research takes place simultaneously in Romania, as a representative of a peripheral higher education system, and Germany, as a representative of a higher education system located at the centre of the academic world. By exploring the difference in prestige between individual institutions and the higher education systems of the two countries, this paper aims to better understand the transnational significance of university prestige. With the help of thematic analysis, three main themes were extracted and revealed as relevant for both countries: (1) skills represent the core variable of relevance in the employment process, (2) university prestige is viewed as a contributing variable and (3) the selection process itself is becoming increasingly complex. Additionally, Romanian employers demonstrated a preference for graduates from German universities, highlighting the centre-periphery dichotomy in higher education.