Policymakers nationwide must decide how to best invest in education and related opportunities, such as out-of-school-time programs targeting youth and early-childhood education programs. In this paper, we review the costs, benefits, and costs and benefits relative to one another for one alternative type of investment: youth programs that are…

Higher education in the United Kingdom is currently undergoing major changes. In the foreseeable future, it will also undergo further change. The nature of these changes can be attributed to several key areas--government demand for change, industry demand for change and student demand for change. The UK, like many other major economies and not for…

This policy brief looks ahead for 2008 and presents the top 10 state issues most likely to be at the forefront of discussion and action that will affect public higher education across the 50 states, in the view of the state policy analysis and research staff at the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU). The focus is on…

Fair Dealing is the right, within limits, to reproduce a substantial amount of a copyrighted work without permission from, or payment to, the copyright owner. Its purpose is to facilitate creativity and free expression by ensuring reasonable access to existing knowledge while at the same time protecting the interests of copyright owners. It is…

This article presents the text of Joanne Yatvin's presidential address, delivered at the NCTE Annual Convention in New York City in November 2007. The title of her presidential address, "Where Ignorant Armies Clash by Night," was taken from Matthew Arnold's (1867) poem "Dover Beach." Yatvin states that the federal government…

Environmental equality, social justice and well-being are national headline indicators for the United Kingdom (UK), and community vibrancy is a rural headline indicator. All four of these indicators were designated as headline indicators prior to any robust definition or methodology for their measurement was articulated. Prior to the establishment…

This paper examines the cost of the increased provision of higher education courses within further education colleges in England. We believe this to be the first attempt to fit a cost function specifically to the further education sector. Cost functions for a sample of 96 colleges over a 2-year period, from 2000 to 2002, are fitted using a panel…

Purpose: This paper aims to provide a critical analysis of the European Commissions and the member states attempts to introduce a European Qualifications Framework and national frameworks respectively. Design/methodology/approach: The paper is based on a review of policies and substantive desk research in countries that have applied a…

In this article, the author offers an analysis of the Bologna process that draws from Foucault's theory. The author focuses on the objectives and orientations of the process and explains why the process was originally initiated. By mobilizing the concept of "episteme" and "legitimacy", the author highlights the role of the…

This study used testimony, documents, and interviews to examine the use of information in higher education policy making. The article discusses the coalition alignment regarding the state's tuition assistance program and the concomitant information sources on which each coalition drew in the budget process. The results show that there were…

In this article we identify the key survey data for examining the issue of equality in the lives of disabled people in the UK. Such data is essential for assessing change in quality of life over time and for the evaluation of the impact of policy initiatives. For each data source we consider definitions, data collection, issue coverage, sample…

In current policy discourse, rural decline is often described as an inevitable process associated with such broader structural trends as globalization and urbanization. The purpose of this paper is to challenge the supposed inevitability of rural decline in northern British Columbia (BC), Canada. We argue that rural decline in northern BC has been…

Educational policies for students with a disability in Australia, the USA, the UK and in most western countries stipulate that inclusive placement should be an option available to parents. This article examines three principal drivers of inclusion: social justice principles, legislation, and research findings, and considers the extent to which…

What kinds of relationships exist between educational policy, research and the professional knowledge of the teachers that implement these policies in practice? This article reports research that examined the role of teachers working in an environment formed by links between research, policy and practice. By adopting a contextual focus upon the…

According to the California Department of Education's Curriculum Framework, the secondary curriculum for grades nine through twelve is geared toward students who are beginning "to develop [an] abstract understanding of historical causality--the often complex patterns of relationships between historical events, their multiple antecedents, and…