ABSTRACT
Developments toward what is sometimes called mass higher education began in the United States in the 1920s. All other countries have entered this stage of development since the 1950s. The change in the education of the general student has been equally conspicuous. Those who went to universities in Europe in the 1920s and 1930s studied in order to become higher civil servants, lawyers, physicians, pharmacists, engineers, industrial chemists, high school teachers, economists, academics, and members of a few smaller professions. With 15 percent or more of the college-age group studying at universities, the possibility of establishing such balance has vanished. Demand in the labor market for people with university degrees is also more likely to increase than to decrease - at least outside the United States. The reason for this is that university graduates everywhere compete with others for jobs that do not necessarily require university training, such as public administration, business, or banking.
