The relations between perspectives of professional integration and the personal involvement of students in their education

Abstract

The last decades has seen a dramatic increase of the number of students in higher education. This evolution, which has taken place in the context of a weak economic growth, a progression of unemployment and a decline of the integration of young people into the world of work, has also generated diverse explanatory models. Drawing from the data provided by a European research, the authors of this paper are testing the following hypothesis: there is a relation between the perception students have of the conditions of their professional integration, the time they devote to academic and extra-curricular activities and their involvement in their studies. Results validate such a hypothesis and observations also make visible a behavioral and strategic diversity. Yet, they also point to some questions concerning the way in which students build up anticipations.