Preface

How do modern states equip their citizens with the advanced skills required to succeed in an increasingly knowledge-based global economy? This question lies at the heart of Human Capital for the Knowledge Economy. The book develops a novel theoretical framework and mobilizes original empirical evidence to examine how higher education systems have become central arenas for skill formation across advanced capitalist democracies. It also explains the diverse paths that countries have taken to build high-level skills. Over the past three decades, the expansion of higher education has become a near-universal trend among OECD countries. Growth in university enrolments has been driven by technological change and labour markets increasingly oriented toward non-routine cognitive tasks. Yet, as this book articulates, the ways in which higher education systems have responded to these pressures vary widely. Some countries have strengthened government control over higher education, while elsewhere governments have leveraged their authority to reinforce market mechanisms. In some countries, higher education expanded targeting specific disciplines, often in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics areas, while such targeting is almost entirely absent elsewhere. Why these differences persist is the puzzle that animates this study.