This chapter discusses the two concepts of heightened attention in Vietnamese higher education recently, namely "university autonomy" and "quality assurance". The chapter first introduces a brief definition of the two concepts and reviews the debate on whether quality assurance facilitates or conflicts with university autonomy.…

Recent studies reveal that developing countries cannot achieve good governance in higher education by merely borrowing structures from advanced systems because the globally advocated "one-best-way" approach often ignores levels of institutional capacity in developing countries. This study suggests institutional capacity as a core…

Transnational collaboration between higher education institutions offers many potential benefits but effective cross-border engagement -- and developing policies to support it -- can be challenging. Based on a review of available evidence, this policy paper identifies three key challenges to effective policy making. Academics and autonomous…

Theological training institutions play a pivotal role in equipping human resources for the holistic mission of the Church. The training they provide is highly recommended to meet rising demands for, and to ensure capacity building, integrity and competency for the rapidly growing Church in Africa, and to reverse the mission of the Church to Europe…

This chapter explores the systemic factors that help and/or hinder change and innovation across school systems, with a focus on evidence and examples from England. It sets out an innovation framework, adapted from (Leadbeater, C. and Wong, A., Learning from the Extremes, Cisco, San Jose, CA, 2010), as a means of comparing examples of innovation…

This chapter aims to illustrate how Indonesian higher education (HE) has struggled to compete in the globalised world, as evidenced by the country's below-average performance in global university rankings and the Global Innovation Index, despite the significant support from the government to improve Indonesia's capacity for knowledge production.…

In an environment of increased accountability and autonomy for school leaders, insufficient assistance relationships between school leaders and district staff hinder the ability of principals to utilize autonomy in ways that translate to improved instruction and student performance. This study sought to examine and strengthen the assistance…

A number of districts are moving toward a portfolio management model, in which central offices act as "portfolio managers" (PMs) that oversee--but may not actively manage--publicly funded schools. Using principal-agent theory, with its focus on goal alignment and the use of incentives, we explore how PMs operated in ways distinct from…

The purpose of this systematic literature review of empirical studies was to analyse the results of 20 years of research, related to education reform, to identify factors that support or hinder change efforts. An electronic search identified a total of 160 relevant primary studies published between 2000 and 2020 that were included in the review.…

This article examines organizational change in national ministries responsible for higher education in light of public sector reforms. The article suggests an analytical framework based on authority/autonomy and capacity developments, paying special attention to the creation of agencies. Empirically, this is exemplified by two cases: the Austrian…

Charter school authorizing is a powerful strategy for making excellent public schools and educational opportunities available to all students and communities, especially those who are historically under-resourced. Done well, authorizing increases student achievement by expanding the supply of quality public schools. Because authorizing is a…

Districts are relying on school autonomy to help schools differentiate educational programming for students and improve low-performing schools, yet we know little about how schools use autonomy in practice. Drawing on school case study and principal survey data from the Los Angeles Unified School District, we find variation in perceived school…

As previous research has not addressed the relationship between university autonomy and university rankings within countries where the state control model is used, this study explores universities' strategies to achieve top university rankings in accordance with their autonomous rights and financial as well as political support. Specifically, this…

We conducted a qualitative study in four countries of the Europe and Central Asia (ECA) region and explored the Early Childhood Education (ECE) policy landscape with an emphasis on the challenges and opportunities decentralization has presented for the provision of services. We content-analyzed ECE policies and documents to map national approaches…

Though much is known about the school environments that increase students' access to opportunity, the process for developing conditions that presage such outcomes remains a pertinent area of study. The reality that widespread school performance has yet to realize the promise of true educational equity, particularly in urban settings, attests to…