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The index of economic, cultural and social status (ESCS) is probably, just after student achievement scores, the most used variable in reports and in secondary analysis of data from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). Based on student reports to the context questionnaire, it helps address relevant questions about educational opportunity and inequalities in learning outcomes. While well-established and sometimes used as a reference (if not a standard) for the measurement of socioeconomic status (SES) in national assessments of school-aged children (INVALSI 2017, p. 70; Cowan et al. 2012), the ESCS index has also been criticised. Some scholars, in particular, have challenged the validity, reliability or comparability of the current measurement of socioeconomic status or of its components in PISA, calling for revisions and extensions of the index (Rutkowski and Rutkowski 2013; Pokropek et al. 2017; Willms and Tramonte 2015). This article reviews the history and use of ESCS, and formulates recommendations to strengthen its measurement, based on a set of reporting priorities. The significant advances in statistical methodologies since the early 2000s, and more importantly, concerns about the validity of the current measure of socioeconomic status in PISA and of the inferences that are made based on it, justify an effort to revisit this variable. The

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As innovation increasingly fuels economic growth, higher education institutions and systems face the challenge of equipping students with the skills required by innovative economies. Using two international surveys of tertiary education graduates five years after their graduation, we show that the innovative, tertiary-educated workforce comprises a mix of graduates holding degrees from all disciplines. The contribution to innovation of different graduates varies by type of innovation. When they assess the strong and weak points of their university education, graduates give a mixed picture of the quality of the education they have received. We then link the propensity to participate in innovation to the relative emphasis on theory and practice in university programmes and conclude by highlighting the importance of a competence-based approach to curriculum and pedagogy.