Higher education and graduate employment in Europe : select findings from previous decades European universities are expected to contribute to a general enhancement of the students knowledge and possibly a cultivation of values attitudes and the personality in general. They are also the training ground for the minority of students who eventually will become scholars and teach future generations of students. Finally universities are expected to provide a foundation of knowledge and skills relevant for occupations typically taken over by graduates. The survey of the changing relationship between higher education and graduate employment in Europe presented here provides an account of quantitative changes in enrolment and graduation in Europe between about 1950 and the 1990s and gives a summary of major political and research debates about the balance between higher education and employment. Furthermore an overview is provided of the modes of graduation and award of degrees. Their relevance to professional practice and changes in graduate employment and work is demonstrated in detail by analyzing statistical material and empirical surveys. Finally the author refers to various ways the universities themselves address the changing relationships between higher education and employment. Gliederung: 1. Introduction 2. Expansion of Higher Education and Graduate Employment an overview 3. Changing Debates about the Quantitative and Structural Relationships between University and Employment 4. Graduation and Degrees 5. Graduate Employment and Work 6. The Universities Responses to Changing Graduate Employment and Work 7. Concluding Remarks. (HoF Text übernommen)