While never a loved organisation, Ofsted's reputation has perhaps never been so low. Amid a myriad of calls for reform or abolition, former HMI Adrian Lyons reflects on his 20 years of inspection with over 16 years employed by Ofsted as an HMI. He concludes that one of the biggest problems with Ofsted is its frequent change in policy, activity and…

The article analyses the strategies of Hungarian higher education interest organisations against the encroachments on academic freedom by Viktor Orbán's governments. We contrast the 2012-2013 and 2017-2019 protest waves and find that innovations in strategy came from new organisations in both periods, whereas established ones were rather passive…

In this paper, we engage with the Research Excellence Framework (REF) -- the UK government's national policy tool for competitive allocation of scarce research funding. Success on the terms of the REF provides guaranteed income for UK Universities for a 6- or 7-year period -- and as a result, we suggest that the REF operates as an asset-like…

In my inquiry, I explore Chinese urban youth culture under the one-child policy through analyses of two Chinese Internet subcultural artifacts--"A Bloody Case of a Steamed Bun" and "Du Fu Is Busy." Using Douglas Kellner's "multiperspectival cultural studies" (i.e., cultural studies, critical theory, and critical media…

This paper examines and compares national policies on school exclusion, using a specific framework for public policy analysis developed by Carol Bacchi [(2009). Analysing policy: What's the problem represented to be? Frenchs Forest: Pearson]. This framework is known as 'What's the problem represented to be?' or 'WPR'. Bacchi's framework has been…

At the fin de siècle the Industrial Revolution created egregious physical, emotional and spiritual conditions for American society and especially for the worker but who would come forward to alleviate those conditions? Protestants implemented their Social Gospel Movement as a proposed cure to these problems. Secular Progressives engaged in a more…

Global disruptions are marking our days and calling on individuals, institutions, and the State for institutional change. Given the need to understand changing processes and their implications for society and public policy, it is vital to equip Public Administration students with the knowledge of relevant theories to assess the complexity of such…

This short article reflects on 'public switching' as a methodology for research on public perspectives on potential responses to the climate crisis. There have been recent calls for early public engagement with potentially controversial science and technology. Such 'upstream' engagement is often conducted by those close to the science, presenting…

While scholars develop research with clear implications for policy and practice, this work has been largely ineffective in influencing thought beyond the academy. In this article, we explore challenges researchers face in designing public scholarship to influence policy. To illustrate, we profile one such effort, the "Opportunity to Learn…

Ageing populations and rising skill demands have heightened expectations that higher education systems will widen their offer of continuing education and training (CET) for adults aiming to renew or augment their skills at an advanced level. CET is becoming increasingly important for maintaining a highly skilled workforce also in Germany, and…

The Benefit Offset National Demonstration (BOND) tested a $1 reduction in benefits per $2 earnings increase above the level at which Social Security Disability Insurance benefits drop from full to zero under current law. BOND included a rare and large "population-representative" experiment: It applied the rule to a nationwide, random…

Purpose: Throughout the world, the dominant discourse treats "financial literacy" as both necessary and sufficient to improve the well-being of individuals and society. Findings: This essay argues that financial literacy is neither, and that promoting financial literacy is a perverse way to address the inadequate retirement funding,…

The U.S. Department of Education has projected enrollment declines over the next decade, leading to budget cuts for school districts, which will be particularly impactful in urban and rural areas serving vulnerable students. As federal COVID-19 funds expire, districts will face challenges in cutting costs, potentially leading to layoffs or school…

During the past two decades, an increasing number of European countries have introduced language requirements for residency, citizenship, and sometimes even for entry to the country and family reunification. As a result, democratic rights as well as basic human rights have come to depend upon an individual's ability to obtain a certain score on a…

The problem of social orphanhood is one of the most important among the social problems of modern Russia, it is acute for a society. In the study of the problems of social orphanage, we used the author's methods of ranking the regions of Russia according to the dynamics of indicators, an integrated index of "favorable" changes, as well…