Investment model in higher education from the perspective of increasing the employment rate of graduate students

The strategic goal of further development of the higher education in Serbia is to increase the percentage of population holding a university degree in Serbia by 2020. The aforementioned determination requires adequate planning of the higher education development with the aim of ensuring the necessary and appropriate employment to a higher number of people holding a university degree. A higher percentage of employment of graduate students and/or people with university degrees is an imperative that must be met in Serbia and Ap Vojvodina, as a European region, in order to access the modern European processes in the field of higher education focused on development of 'a knowledge society'. The economic position of higher education in the expression of the investment model applicable in this domain has a crucial effect on further development of the higher education. The subject matter of the study presented in this paper is a further qualitative development of higher education in Serbia and Ap Vojvodina, based on the use of a new investment model in higher education, ensuring investments in study programmes of different faculties. The goal of the study is to achieve efficacy and efficiency of the new investment model from the perspective of improving the operating cost-efficiency, for the purpose of increasing the employment rate of graduate students, as well as to analyse the information obtained. By using the new investment model formulae, based on the available information concerning Ap Vojvodina, parametres were calculated that are relevant for testing of the new model in the field of increasing the employment rate of graduate students. Results of the study indicate a higher cost-efficiency of the new investment model in higher education and suggest that the new model would contribute to increasing the employment rate of graduate students on study programmes of faculties in Serbia and Ap Vojvodina.