Humboldt goes to the labour market: how academic higher education fuels labour market success in the Czech Republic

Abstract

The Czech Republic is one of the post-communist countries where the transformation from late industrial to knowledge economies and knowledge societies was complicated by the simultaneous transformations from communist centrally planned economies to democratic regimes and market economies. Furthermore, the transformation of higher education itself brings even more complications into the picture, most notably the vast and rapid expansion – as far-reaching and much faster than in most West European countries. We argue that contrary to the dominant neoliberal discourse, the Czech experience shows that higher education graduates imbued with Humboldtian academic education fare exceptionally well in the contemporary changing economy. Furthermore, their situation shows no signs of deterioration despite rapid expansion of higher education and its Humboldtian nature. Graduates themselves view their study experience as a good basis for their work even though (or because?) they identify their education as theory-oriented without extensive practical knowledge and experience.