In 1999, the Bologna Declaration was signed, which led to the introduction of the BAMA system with a view to achieve more flexibility in higher education. This has improved the transition options within higher education, between HBO and WO. In the BAMA structure, WO bachelors and HBO bachelors are in principle equivalent, and the same applies to master's degrees at HBO and WO level. “Our research, however, shows that this is not the case and that the labour market has not adapted to the BAMA system over the years,” says Raymond Montizaan, one of the authors of the report.

BAMA structure still not common practice among employers

The research mapped both the supply and demand side of the labour market in order to determine the return on bachelor's and master's degrees. Text mining research on major vacancy websites shows that after 20 years the BAMA structure has not yet become common practice among employers. Montizaan: “Employers specifically ask for a HBO or WO level and almost never for bachelor's or master's degrees. This indicates that employers still assume that most university students will also complete their master's degree after their bachelor's degree”.

More flexibility in transition in the education system

The largest transition in education still takes place within HBO or WO. The flows from HBO to WO are growing but remain still relatively small. Most transition students from a HBO bachelor opt for a university master; a small part opts for a HBO master.

The flexibility, however, mainly lies in the study areas that students choose within wo and when they transition from HBO to WO. Almost 20% of graduates with a university bachelor's degree transition to a university master's degree in a different study area. In even more than 40% of the cases, HBO bachelors who transition to a university master opt for a university master's degree in a different study area. This kind of flexibility can help ensure that the BAMA structure does indeed lead to a better match between supply and demand on the labour market.

Lowest wage for university bachelors

Analyses of the success rates of bachelors who graduated in cohort 2012-2013 show that university bachelors have a lower chance of being employed 1 year after graduation compared to HBO bachelors. On the other hand, these graduates more often receive benefits, but above all they have returned to education. This confirms that a university bachelor's degree, in contrast to an HBO bachelor's degree, is not regarded as a final destination, possibly as a result of the way in which employers still recruit for their vacancies. The differences persist over time: 5 years after graduation, the chance of a job in paid employment is 18% lower for university bachelors than HBO bachelors, and they earn 1% less per hour. WO master's graduates earn 22% more than HBO bachelor's graduates 5 years after graduating. HBO master's graduates earn more 1 year after graduation than HBO bachelor's graduates, but this difference disappears after 5 years.

Study area also important

In addition to the level of education, fields of education are also important for the wages that graduates earn. For example, HBO bachelors earn more than university masters who have followed a programme in design, art, languages ​​and history or a journalism, behaviour and society programme. That is also the case for university bachelors in architecture: they earn more than the latter two master programmes. However, the differences in the study areas per educational level are on average smaller than the differences between the educational levels. Moreover, for both computer science and construction engineering, university masters in the same study area have a considerably higher gross hourly wage.