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The purpose of this paper is to add supplement to the theory of human capital with a less researched aspect: diversification possibilities of the professional profile. Our empirical analysis tested the research question, whether there is a significant difference between diversificational and specialist career strategies in the BA-MA transition based on labour market data on salaries and time of getting employment.

Present study analyses data from the Graduate Career Tracking System from 2011 to 2015 and the Integrated Administrative Databases from 2017. Graduates of master's courses were divided and compared in three groups: generalists, specialists and field changers. To evaluate career strategies the measurement of success was based on salaries and the time taken to get jobs.

The analysis showed that there are visible differences between the results of the three groups regarding factors of employment, so at the time of reaching the absolutorium a lower rate of major subject changers are employed, while field changers get jobs significantly faster. Based on net salaries we could not reveal a difference between major subject retainers and changers, while field changers earn significantly more.

Specialists (major subject retainers) have jobs that match with their degree and specialty outstandingly, field changers have notably weaker matches, while major subject changers differ only minimally. Considering this it may be due to distorted perception that specialists think the least that their master's studies are essential for the proper execution of their jobs.

In the literature review we found a research gap: Although there is a large number of excellent works analysing the effects of education on wages (salary curve) and career, but only a few of them investigates the impact of the professional portfolio (diversification or specialisation). The novelty of our research is that we developed a new methodology to test this question on example of the Hungarian students of business and economics focused.

In a service-led, knowledge-based economy, employers increasingly expect universities to deliver a workforce suited to this environment. This emphasis is evident in contemporary Australian higher education, which is shifting to an acquisition of vocational outcomes. However, vocational outcomes are not traditionally viewed as outcomes of liberal arts programs. Balancing new expectations with traditional perspectives generates a tension between assuring graduates employment outcomes and maintaining the integrity of the Bachelor of Arts (BA) as a liberal arts program. Getting it wrong can result in fragmented and unstable curricula. One of the many ways that Australian BA programs are grappling with this problem is through the provision of work-integrated learning (WIL) opportunities for liberal arts students. In professions-based programs such as engineering or dentistry, the shape and nature of these courses may be obvious. It is less so in the generalist BA. Australian BA programs offer students the opportunity to engage with WIL in a variety of ways. Evidence from national studies investigating the Australian BA between 2008 and 2016 highlight common features of practice – such as the objectives, activities, and structure, and indicate that two approaches to providing WIL opportunities in the BA are evident. In order to meet the goals and aspirations of both economic and social purposes of higher education, liberal arts programs tend to adopt either a transactional or a transformational model. Each model has particular characteristics and approaches to practice that can inform the development of new programs and policies more globally.

How responsible is the management elite for the so‐called “world‐problems”, e.g. like “the scandalous economic scissors between north and south”, population growth and food scarcity or environmental problems? To give first answers on these questions is the purpose of this paper.

As we began to think about these sorts of questions, we became very much aware, that there are numerous reasons to get down from the “ivory tower” and start being more concerned about the role of business administration within this “world‐problem” issue. The theoretical scope of the paper is observing management attitudes by the glasses of the system theory. The practical outcome of this work is giving managers the chance to reflect themselves.

By asking questions to the traditional business administration as a science and as a practice we will develop a new attitude of self‐responsibility in the spirit of Heinz von Foerster for a new, alternative academic management education.

This paper describes the core elements of a new “I‐want” reflection‐theory and tries to “irritate”; better: perturbate management‐systems in order to keep the dynamics of self‐reflection going.

Production and operations management (POM) is a key factor for the competitiveness of any business and university training in POM is a critical element in the preparation of future managers. The course contents, the teaching staff and the teaching methodology used are three of the most important aspects of successful training. These aspects have been explored in an empirical study of the current status of the teaching of POM in Spanish universities, based on a survey of the total population of instructors of this discipline. This is the first study to reveal an in‐depth and comprehensive picture of this topic in a country of the European Union, and it is hoped that this will encourage analogous studies of other countries in Europe and beyond. In the present paper, we shall discuss the more relevant results in respect of the content of POM programs being taught; we illustrate the type of instruction available in Spanish universities, indicate the differences between the main academic degrees in which the discipline figures, and undertake a constructive critical analysis. The teaching staff and methodologies used are analyzed in another article in this journal.

Education can provide learners with the necessary awareness, values and skills to understand the complexity of sustainability. This study aims to analyse the extent to which sustainability concepts have been implemented in higher education programmes in the tourism and hospitality fields.

For the purpose of the current study, data on all tourism and hospitality programmes offered in Cyprus higher education institutions (HEIs) at the Bachelor level was obtained. Analysis was conducted on publicly available programme descriptions, learning outcomes, program content and syllabi and course descriptions.

The study finds that sustainability concept implementation in undergraduate hospitality and tourism degree programmes is at a developing stage. The majority of the HEI follow trends and offer sustainability courses either as compulsory or elective courses, but concept implementation in programme learning outcomes and programme descriptions is relatively limited.

This paper presents a review of data and evidence on sustainability concept implementation in tourism and hospitality education in Cyprus.

This chapter analyses how the six undergraduate programmes in communication management in Flanders (Belgium) refer to or include management in their curricula in order to support the career plans of their students. As communication is inherently integrated in business courses, it will attempt to determine how management is included in BAs in communication management, and how it is defined both from the perspective of the programme responsible and of practitioners’. It proposes a six-point model for a ‘managerial attitude’ extracted from the interviews and reflections of the practitioners’ managerial needs for public relations to be embedded in a company’s policy and brought on the board’s agenda when strategic decisions are made.

The shape and makeup of a corporate university in a management consulting firm remains a vexed question: what should it look like, and what should it do, to develop its professionals most effectively? There is not a great deal of literature on this topic ‐ or on management, human resources, and professional development in professional services firms in general ‐ as these firms tend to hold their cards close to the vest. This article offers some initial thinking about education and development in a management consulting firm, with the aim of laying out a framework for understanding what a university in such a context might be. The hope is that this consideration of the particular dynamics of management consulting firms and the challenges for education and development therein, coupled with a case study of the curriculum at the management and strategy consulting firm of Booz·Allen & Hamilton, will open up a discussion of the most important factors for success in this arena.

Production/operations management (POM) is today a key element for the competitivity of companies, and the demand by Spanish companies for university graduates qualified in this area is significant. Therefore, in this discipline, the correct education and training of future business managers is an evident need to be addressed; however, little is known about the current situation of POM teaching in Spanish universities. Hence, to obtain reliable and useful data, a comprehensive empirical study of the total population of university teachers of this discipline in Spain has been undertaken. The present paper concentrates first on the analysis of the characteristics of the POM faculty in Spanish universities, then considers the teaching and assessment methods and the didactic material employed in the teaching of this discipline. In both cases, a critical analysis has been made of the various problems observed, and alternative solutions have been proposed. The analysis of the content of POM programs is the subject of another article published in this journal.

Higher educational institutions, such as universities of applied sciences, have a significant role in promoting progress towards a sustainable future as defined by the United Nations (UN) sustainable development goals (SDGs). This paper aims to identify how the UN SDGs are featured in master’s theses set in work–life contexts.

Using a descriptive review and content analysis, this study identified the number of SDGs appearing in 31 master’s theses. Sustainable development (SD) and corporate social responsibility were reflected using the approaches and models in the literature. Finland’s eight objectives for committing to SD were used to examine the commitments made by the business school of the university of applied sciences to achieve Agenda 2030.

Emphasising the value of higher education for SD, this study found that SDGs three, eight and 12 appeared most frequently in the theses. Sustainable and responsible dimensions reflected several issues concerning both the worlds of business and industry among the firms and organisations investigated by the master’s degree students in the business school at the Jyväskylä University of Applied Sciences.

This research holds practical and pedagogical value, serving to encourage master’s and PhD students to further explore research on SDGs and to shape public policy.

Sustainability was looked at in a new way as investigated by the theses. Ways to integrate the SDGs into management degree programmes and conduct research in the fields of business administration, tourism and hospitality management were identified.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the particular characteristics and strengths of mainstream undergraduate and postgraduate university education for social workers.

A brief summary of the establishment of the honours degree or M-level qualification as the requirement for registration as a social worker in England is followed by a summary of the main aspects of “mainstream” social work courses. The values underpinning a “student” rather than a “trainee” route into social work are explored and some limited comparisons made with recently introduced fast-track specialist programmes. Where relevant, the student experience is contrasted with that of fast-track specialist trainees.

The paper concludes with a discussion of the potential impact on the social work profession and on agencies providing social work services of the cuts over the past few years in the numbers of students on “generalist” mainstream social work programmes.

This is a conceptual paper. It recognises that more information is available on long-established university programmes than on the more recently available fast-track routes into social work and cites relevant research.

The paper points to the changing balance between numbers entering social work in England via mainstream and fast-track specialist programmes and argues for a fuller debate amongst all stakeholders as to whether this change is in the interest of the profession and those who need social work services.

The author argues that the unequal level of funding between the different entry routes into social work is distorting choice (for students and future employers) between fast-track specialist and mainstream social work education. It is hypothesised that differences between the curricula and learning experiences of the two routes may have an impact on the social work service available to vulnerable people across age and needs groups. It also points to a potentially negative impact on social work education and the knowledge base of the reduction in numbers of academics with both social work practice experiences and research qualifications.

This is an original paper that draws on the author’s experience and the published research and grey literature cited.