To boost the social and economic outlook of the country, Turkey has recently initiated educational reform at all levels and especially higher education, including organizational restructuring and expansion for increased accessibility. The swift increase in the number and size of universities has resulted in a challenge to find trained faculty. One…

America can no longer afford an education system that fails to use data effectively to guide decisionmaking. The education sector is facing ever-increasing demands to improve student outcomes, reduce burden, increase efficiency, and improve transparency. These demands cannot be met without the strategic and effective use of data. Due to the…

Since independence, the Kenyan government has demonstrated its commitment to the provision of quality secondary school education through allocation of financial resources, provision of trained teachers and establishment of quality assurance department. However, despite the substantial allocation of resources, secondary schools still face major…

Using data from a self-report survey of juniors and seniors, we document statistically significant growth of a student engagement culture on our campus after a three year period following implementation of an institutional Quality Enhancement Plan. Twenty-three of 45 individual variables, scores on four of 10 multivariate engagement factors, and…

Cyprus takes over the European Union Presidency in the second half of 2012 in a period of continuing uncertainty due to the world economic crisis. The vocational education and training (VET) system of Cyprus is playing a significant role in dealing with the immediate adverse effects of the crisis on the labour market as well as in laying the…

In January 2010, the General Assembly passed the Complete College Tennessee Act (CCTA), a comprehensive reform agenda seeking to transform public higher education through changes in academic, fiscal, and administrative policies at the state and institutional levels. While the higher education landscape has been shaped by the CCTA, it is also…

In countries where higher education has largely been a state function, conservative bureaucracies are viewed as impediments to necessary development and change. Virtually everywhere, voices are raised to demand necessary reforms yet, in spite of these apparently common challenges, it remains true that policy-related education issues are framed by…

The nature of higher education is by no means fixed: it has evolved over time; different models of higher education co-exist alongside each other at present; and, worldwide, there are demands for higher education to change to better help support economic growth and to better fit changing social and economic circumstances. This book examines, from…

Following signals across Europe the European Students' Union (ESU) will focus its next working year on defending education as a public good, and a public responsibility. Since the very start of the new ESU team in July 2010 the ESU elected representatives have been working to develop a new political vision for the next ESU working year, that both…

The Critical Success Factors Report is the North Carolina Community College System's major accountability document. This annual performance report serves to inform colleges and the public on the performance of North Carolina's 58 community colleges. In 1993, the State Board of Community Colleges began monitoring performance data on specific…

Educational objectives, like educational quality, are contextual and evolving--they may exhibit both continuity and change. This paper capitalizes on the role of neo-institutionalism and on the contribution of Douglass North (one major representative of the neo-institutionalism trend) in identifying the institutional impact upon cognitive…

Student participation in short-term programs abroad (both credit and noncredit) has grown exponentially in recent years and now represents the primary international experience for a significant percentage of U.S. college and university students. Recognizing this, the Forum Standards Committee saw a need for a more specific set of standards that…

This survey was a joint initiative between Society of College, National, and University Libraries (SCONUL) and the Association of Research Libraries (ARL), that since 2004 has sponsored a program to assist libraries with the assessment of services that they offer their users and the processes that support those services. It was based on an ARL…

Only a handful of states address children with disabilities in their early child care quality rating systems. As a result, few states are evaluating the quality of inclusive programs and services. This problem is compounded by a lack of consensus on dimensions that define high quality inclusion and a need for additional measures of quality…

Early childhood education and care (ECEC) has become a policy priority in many countries. A growing body of research recognises that it provides a wide range of benefits, including social and economic benefits, better child well-being and learning outcomes as a foundation for lifelong learning, more equitable outcomes and reduction of poverty, and…