The core challenge our proposal seeks to address is how to ensure that every American family and child has access to high-quality, affordable early childhood care and education (ECE) services in a critical period of human development, breaking a shortage of investment in young children. America's status quo asks the most of parents when they have…

Like its 2008 predecessor, the, 2014 Research Excellence Framework was a high-stakes exercise. For universities and their constituent departments, it had zero-sum implications for league table position in a way that the 2001 exercise did not, and "post facto" it is having a significant effect on investment and disinvestment as…

The article deals with individual aspects in professional training of tourism specialists in the UK. It has been specified that alongside with the global development of tourism education, the UK revealed the potential of its tourism industry with the introduction of the Development of Tourism Act in 1969. Consequently, the tourism education in the…

The purposes of this paper are twofold: a presentation of the theoretical basis of benchmarking and a discussion on practical benchmarking applications. Benchmarking is also analyzed as a productivity accelerator. The authors study benchmarking usage in the private and public sectors with due consideration of the specificities of the two areas.…

"Quality Counts 2012," the 16th edition of "Education Week"'s annual examination of issues and challenges facing America's public schools, takes aim at topics high on the policy agenda, from the White House and Congress down to the level of local school boards and chambers of commerce: the nation's international standing in…

This newsletter focuses on education news and events both in Washington, DC and around the country, and is presented in an accessible format for everyone from elected officials and policymakers to parents and community leaders. First, it talks about George W. Bush's first policy speech as president of the United States that outlined the ideas and…

This article inquires into the "calculative practices" that are used to regulate quality in higher education. After providing a historical snapshot of the antecedents of quality regimes, I discuss university ranking systems (league tables) and the UK's Research Assessment Exercise. I ask two questions: first, what do the visibilities of…

Discusses what benchmarking is and reflects on the importance and development of benchmarking in universities on a national and international level. Offers examples of transnational benchmarking activities, including the International Benchmarking Club, in which South African higher education institutions participate. (EV)

Purpose: This paper sets out in the wider context of globalization to examine how and what specific reform strategies the Government of the Hong Kong special administrative region (HKSAR) has adopted in reforming its higher education system to enhance the competitiveness of its higher education in the increasingly globalizing economic context.…

The Skills Standards Projects have provided further emphasis on the need for benchmarking U.S. vocational-technical education (VTE) against international competition. Benchmarking is an ongoing systematic process designed to identify, as quantitatively as possible, those practices that produce world class performance. Metrics are those things that…