In today's world this gap between the richest and the poorest is constantly widening. This paper aims to examine the impact of this economic inequality on the quality of education in two selected European countries--Poland and Finland. The choice of countries is not accidental: Finland was chosen because it has one of the best-rated education…

The qualitative research study conducted in the Polish higher education context confirms that students' vision of an ideal university strongly embraces the concept of quality as transformation. The enhancement and empowerment are manifested by multiple facets of transformation that the students look for at an ideal university, including…

Since the 2004 accession to the European Union (EU), Poland, like many other post-communist countries, have gone through a significant process of convergence to the EU institutions, laws and processes. In this process, the European values, policies and institutions have become an important reference point for the legitimacy of major national…

The article presents results of an Erasmus+ project that aimed at suggesting a comprehensive performance indicator set for learning and teaching. Based on a benchlearning exercise among the six project universities, the article presents findings of an exploratory research on the assessment of the developed indicator set by members of four…

Parents play a vital role in identifying children's needs for support and Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) features that support children's well-being. This study examined parental perspectives on features of ECEC that foster young children's well-being under and above the age of 3 years by interviewing 359 parents across nine European…

The article presents the results of a large-scale Polish project aimed at examining the quality of early childhood education and care using the SACERS research tool. Although the SACERS scale consists of 47 items, this article focuses mainly on the data concerning the assessment of space and furnishings of 140 school common rooms in terms of the…

During the war, a significant number of Ukrainian universities were tragically destroyed, while others were relocated. The challenging wartime circumstances in which universities operate in Ukraine have increased the use of distance education. University management and academic staff agree that the quality of services offered hinges on the…

The quality of didactic materials is a source of concern for teachers, users, and educational institutions that offer online education. There is a lack of indicators to help assess the quality of three key types of didactic materials commonly used in online education: didactic units (i.e., materials that contain program contents), didactic guides…

Research Findings: This study examined whether teacher-child interaction quality varied as a function of type of activity in toddler classrooms in four European countries (Finland, Netherlands, Poland, and Portugal). It also investigated whether specific activity settings, namely levels of adult involvement, use of whole group, and children's…

Globalisation, technological changes and the industry-to-service economy transition has produced dramatic changes in the labour market, thus affecting higher education. It is no longer sufficient to provide students with disciplinary knowledge. Graduates are also expected to be adaptive, innovative and flexible. As these competencies are better…

This study focuses on the state and effectiveness of national funding systems of Higher Education to support the European Universities Initiative. Its focus lies on the mechanisms employed by Member States for the core funding of higher education institutions, in particular the mechanisms that include performance elements. More specifically, the…

This paper discusses the precariousness of an academic profession in contemporary Slovakia and Poland. Although some of the patterns have been previously studied, this analysis sheds new light on the problems of Polish and Slovak academia as seen by foreigners, who, according to official policy, are expected to contribute to the excellence of…

Increasing the supply of qualified teachers is a priority in many nations as a prerequisite to accomplishing UNESCO's Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG 4) to "ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all" by the year 2030. Questions remain however concerning definitions and…

In many countries, out-of-school tutoring in academic subjects has become a widespread phenomenon that affects high proportions of students. Scholarly literature has considered various determinants of participation in such tutoring, but school quality has as yet been rather neglected. The aim of the study is to explore the relationship between the…

Concise, clear and comprehensive snapshots of vocational education and training systems in EU, Iceland and Norway: this is what the Cedefop Spotlight on VET series offers. Building on individual country Spotlights, this publication provides an overview of VET systems with their distinctive qualities, such as main accession and progression routes…