School-based management (SBM) enhances decentralisation and autonomy to improve school leadership and management, but in countries like Vietnam, research on its implementation remains limited. This study investigates SBM practices in Vietnamese primary schools, where current education reforms focus on administrative decentralisation and grant…

Decision-making in educations systems has become more complex: while decentralisation has moved the locus of power to lower governance levels, the central level still is held responsible for the quality of outcomes. As a consequence, new steering strategies have emerged that tend to apply softer modes of governance as opposed to harder ones in the…

Many policy systems and education systems have grown more complex in the last three decades. Power has moved away from central governments in different directions: upwards towards international organisations, sideways towards private institutions and non-governmental organisations and downwards towards local governments and public enterprises such…

Based on detailed empirical analyses, we paint a layered picture of emerging steering dynamics. Inspired by Foucault, we put the focus on roles stakeholders define both for themselves and others, how they give sense to policy, how they work together in policy elaboration and implementation, and the subtle and sometimes deceitful function of soft…

This article analyses the impacts of the Portuguese quality assurance system on academic cultures, using the Cultural Theory proposed by Douglas (1970, 1982) and developed by Thompson, Ellis and Wildavsky (1990) as an explanatory framework for Portuguese academics' preference formation in relation to quality assessment. The Portuguese higher…

Rankings and online comparison sites have both facilitated and shaped the marketisation of higher education in England, the UK as a whole and elsewhere. They have facilitated marketisation by introducing greater competition between and within higher education institutions. Ultimately, they accomplish the transformation of qualities into…

This article reflects on the development of the European approach towards quality and quality assurance in vocational education and training (VET) and its relevance for VET reforms in the European Training Foundation (ETF) partner countries. The analysis is based on an ETF project conducted in 2007-2008 in the Mediterranean partner countries to…

The aim of this study is to provide a retrospective on the reorganisation of the school network in Portugal between 2005 and 2007. Underlying measures predicted the closure of approximately 2000 primary schools, mainly situated in rural areas. This is a current topic of considerable controversy considering the reform which is being implemented and…

This article presents a brief analysis of teacher education in five European countries: Italy, Germany, England, Sweden and Finland. In the post-industrial world, the sense of teaching has profoundly changed, influenced by a rapidly evolving socio-economic context. The responses given by each country are different, but two tendencies emerge: on…

Power in the university is seen as the academic division of labor that creates a number of self-sufficient units responsible for the production of academic work. Two kinds of reforms in higher education, efficiency and participation by disenfranchised groups, have affected the power structure of higher education institutions. (Author/MLW)

An analysis of advisory councils in France's centralized system also proposes a framework for such councils in policy formation in other countries. The analysis looks at the main features of such groups, how they are placed within the system, and what may be learned from the French experience. (MSE)

Five models commonly used to analyze change in the Swedish higher education system are described, and a sixth model related more to public administration than to education is proposed. The public administration model approaches higher education as a system of institutions interrelated by an authority structure, a relationship not fully considered…

A federation was established among several of France's Centers for University Teaching through Broadcasting to pool resources and activities to better serve external degree students. The administrative organization and activities of the group are outlined. (MSE)

The recent history of the Israeli educational system, particularly its trend toward decentralization, is used to test some common assumptions about the need for centralization to achieve control in times of fiscal constraint, need for improvement, and non-implementation of central policies. (MSE)

The University of Aberdeen's development, with the petroleum industry, of a group of companies for research and development are discussed, including problems encountered and recommendations for other universities with similar interests. (MSE)