Accreditation is a critical tool for quality assurance and accountability for higher education, signaling an institution's commitment to academic quality and fiscal integrity. The Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges (AGB) and the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA) published this statement to help board…

Academic freedom is a universal right in the work and lives of citizens. Academic freedom at institutions of higher education not only refers to the freedoms enjoyed by university faculty members and scholars in teaching, research, and publishing of their views and findings, but furthermore encompasses the freedom to learn enjoyed by students. The…

The global establishing of school choice has often and convincingly been criticised in terms of social inequality because parents have very different access to resources to enforce their expectations and demands as 'costumers'. What is less discussed in the literature is the perspective of the 'providers': Do schools have to give up their position…

This article aims to point out how school autonomy helps principals reach higher quality by increasing flexibility in three areas: pedagogy, organization and management. Autonomy leads to an improvement in student performance and, consequently, in educational quality. A theoretical framework based on literature review and PISA results is followed…

Traditionally, threats to academic freedom are associated with repressive government actions, and sometimes also with compliant university managers. In democracies, academic freedom can be undermined in more subtle ways. Where public funding for university research and teaching has diminished, universities have increasingly pursued relationships…

The public charter school movement is premised on the exchange of increased autonomy for increased accountability. Individual schools are given more flexibility in their actions, and then must meet agreed-upon benchmarks of quality. If a school fails to fulfill the terms of its charter or achieve its stated goals, it can be closed. However,…

Schools in Turkey are primarily influenced by the Ministry of National Education ("Milli Egitim Bakanligi") through laws and regulations. Compliance with regulations might be characterised as superficial in many respects and can lead to schools 'decoupling' their espoused structures from the realities of practice. In other words, they…

The business economy experienced major changes during the last three decades. The social and economic globalization associated with the fourth revolution put the accounting profession under great pressure toward harmonization and convergence. Still, the route to become a qualified professional accountant varies from country to country all over the…

Higher education (HE) scholarship often focuses on the so-called 'entrepreneurial' university as a consequence of new public management reforms. Simultaneously, the remarkable expansion of private HE is said to fragment, specialize, and diversify HE systems. Such diagnoses are misleading as they ignore wider environmental pressures and…

America's regional public universities (RPUs) serve a unique role as the portal through which so many students and the nation's future workforce gain the skills needed to face the economic challenges of the 21st century. RPU programs offer 4.9 million students, who are increasingly of color, low income, first generation, and working adults, the…

This paper examines conceptions of governance and freedom embedded within a new school autonomy policy in Queensland (Australia). Drawing on interview data from case study research, it foregrounds the practices of two school leaders from a secondary school in regional Queensland. It considers how such conceptions foster an entrepreneurial…

Does the liberal state have a role in helping mature citizens make worthwhile educational choices? The question has clear relevance for the aims of higher education in a liberal democratic society. As systems of higher education internationalize, it has become difficult for liberal states to steer higher education policy in directions that serve…

We analyze the meanings of university's autonomy throughout western history and capitalism's recent transformations in order to suggest a taxonomy of present universities according to the type of capital enterprise they are imitating. As a first step, we distinguish three dimensions of university's autonomy in the Medieval University and the…

In many countries, education systems are moving towards a combination of increased school autonomy and intensified accountability. In the wake of that shift, decision-making at the school level has become paramount, and the role of the school leader has gained in importance. Despite these trends, surprisingly little is known about how schools and…

Whilst Hong Kong's return to Chinese sovereignty in 1997 has influenced education in various ways, major reforms perceived as promoting mainland control have been resisted. For two decades, Hong Kong's educational autonomy under the 'one country, two systems' formula was thus largely maintained. This changed radically with the response to the…