TY - JOUR AB - Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to explore perceptions by higher education (HE) senior professors and managers of their role in preparing graduates for entry to the labour market. By providing a theoretical and empirical overview of the functional role of HE institutions in preparing graduates for work, the paper designs an own research framework for future developments in this area. Design/methodology/approach– The conclusions in the paper are based on a literature review and approximately 240 semi-structured interviews with HE professors and managers from six European countries and from six different study fields. The results are broadly compared with an international survey of graduates from 20, mainly European, countries. Findings– The senior HE professors and managers see their own role in supporting graduates’ careers in a surprisingly intuitive way. There are some important differences and similarities among the study fields, although they are generally not motivated to apply an evidence-based approach to study and programme developments. Originality/value– This paper is based on the results of a three-year survey of the European research network, and two international conferences comprising more than 100 contributions from over 30, mainly European, countries. VL - 35 IS - 4 SN - 0143-7720 DO - 10.1108/IJM-05-2013-0105 UR - https://doi.org/10.1108/IJM-05-2013-0105 AU - Pavlin Samo ED - Samo Pavlin and Ivan Svetlik PY - 2014 Y1 - 2014/01/01 TI - The role of higher education in supporting graduates’ early labour market careers T2 - International Journal of Manpower PB - Emerald Group Publishing Limited SP - 576 EP - 590 Y2 - 2024/03/29 ER -