This Education Policy Perspective serves as Part A in a two-part series of policy papers on "Promoting Quality and Excellence in Higher Education and VET". This first paper (Part A) reviews recent policy developments in the external evaluation and quality assurance of higher education and vocational education and training (VET)…

This report examines how digital credentials and learning and employment records (LERs) are shaping the ways people access education and career opportunities around the world. In this report, the authors share key findings from their research on digital credentials and LERs and present three detailed case studies of initiatives to govern and…

In this article the authors examine the reasons for the establishment of Hindu schools in the Netherlands and how the Dutch system of education facilitates these and other voluntarily separate schools. In particular, the authors explore the manner in which Hindu schools aim to cultivate and sustain attachments to their own group through a…

Since 2006, the Netherlands has been actively engaged in a process of developing, piloting, and institutionalizing a new 2-year, short-cycle higher education degree, titled the "associate degree". This initiative evolved as a collaborative grassroots effort spearheaded by several Dutch national higher education and business organizations…

Public-private partnerships in education (ePPP) are acquiring increasing centrality in the agendas of international organizations and development agencies dealing with educational affairs. They are designed as an opportunity to correct inefficiencies in the public delivery of education and to mobilize new resources to increase the access to and…

Whether to adopt national standards and tests has long been a subject of lively debate in the United States. With 47 states now participating in the Common Core State Standards Initiative, and a commitment from Education Secretary Arne Duncan to allocate hundreds of millions in stimulus funds to the development of common tests, the country is…

In response to an evaluation conducted by the Netherlands Inspectorate of Education of the nation's elementary schools, the Institute for Educational Development and Advice (Christelijk Pedagogisch Studiecentrum, CPS) undertook a 3-year intervention to revitalize 5 schools experiencing problems with student achievement, curriculum,…

The methodological approach to technology education is illustrated by the case study of the development Active Matrix Liquid Crystal Displays in a small Dutch company. Problems emerge when this development is not dealt with according to nature of technologies involved. In technology education such insights can be used to prevent practices in which…

Agricultural education has been an essential factor in the success of agricultural development in the Netherlands. At present, as in many countries throughout the world, the position of agricultural education is threatened. Does agricultural education have a future in the Netherlands, and if so, what strategies are being used for its survive? This…

This paper summarizes the main results of a meta-evaluation of innovative education programs in Dutch education. Attention is focused on contextual influences, while a case is made for prudent and feasible ways of "rational reconstruction" and for an acitve evaluation policy aimed at overcoming contextual constraints. (LMO)

This study of policies, strategies, and practices designed to create a learning and training culture focuses on Britain, Germany, Sweden, the Netherlands, and the United States. Part I provides an overview of key contextual changes influencing development of policy for building a learning culture in the countries; sets out the approach adopted…

This annual report discusses the work and progress of the Netherlands Organization for International Cooperation in Higher Education (Nuffic), which is devoted to achieving increased intercultural understanding, an equitable distribution of knowledge and infrastructure over all parts of the world, and improvement in the quality of education.…

The history of (external) quality assurance schemes in European higher education since ca. 1980 is sketched in this article. The three pioneering countries in Western Europe are taken as models of different developments and contrasted with the rise of accreditation in Central and Eastern Europe after 1989. Using theoretical insights, the dynamics…