Factors contributing to the (un)fulfilment of employment aspirations of recent Chilean university graduates

The benefits of growth in university enrolments are contingent on the articulation of university expansion with changes in other areas, particularly the economy. The costs of a mismatch are felt at the societal level, but especially by individual graduates. This article describes problems faced by professionals in one country that has experienced very rapid expansion of higher education in a highly privatised market economy. While not uniformly generalisable to other countries, the results are illustrative of what can occur. The study is based on subjective information provided by Chilean university graduates who have recently sought employment. The graduates’ narratives can be aligned along three major dimensions of dissatisfaction: labour force entry; earnings; and working conditions. The themes are linked and combine to describe a difficult transition from university to work in a context of low salaries and unstable and uncertain employment. Among factors contributing to unfulfilment of aspirations are the graduates’ social capital and socioeconomic status, the geographic location of the job, the university from which they graduated, and activities while a student. Unsynchronised expansion of different social institutions can reduce social equity and cohesion.