In response to global competition in higher education, university rankings have been developed. These have been interpreted as indicating the regions and countries with the most prestigious and competitive higher education institutions. The rankings are viewed as important in many countries, but their role is ambiguous and contested in the Nordic…

This study aimed to investigate common features and ways of understanding quality culture (QC) within higher education institutions (HEIs) in Nordic countries. While the concept of QC is commonly accepted and often used, its meaning is not always clear. This paper focuses on how Nordic universities frame QC in their internal documentation. The…

Student mobility in the Nordic countries has traditionally been characterized by cultural cooperation and egalitarian values. Yet, the region has not been isolated from international trends towards emphasizing excellence and competition in the global knowledge economy. Policy framing is here used as an analytical lens for analysing national policy…

Medical educator portfolios (MEP) are increasingly recognized as a tool for developing and documenting teaching performance in Health Professions Education. However, there is a need to better understand the complex interplay between institutional guidelines and how teachers decode those guidelines and assign value to teaching merits. To gain a…

Quality in higher education has been at the top of the political agenda for years, motivating discussion of how to define quality and how standards and assessment can promote quality. However, the literature tends to overlook the processes and practices constituting 'every-day' quality. To improve quality, it is important to know how quality is…

Higher education (HE) institutions in Europe are ascribing greater importance to internationalisation as adding value to the entire institution, whereby the most important benefit identified is improved quality of teaching and learning. Notwithstanding, students' perceptions of the extent to which quality of education is associated with…

Quality in higher education (HE) can be considered a floating signifier that lacks a stable meaning due to the many possible interpretations different actors may ascribe to it in different contexts. We investigate how policy makers employ the term quality in HE policymaking attempting to legitimize policy reforms and find that it is employed in…

Quality assurance (QA) has become an important feature in higher education governance in Europe, with policies for increased harmonization and periodic accreditations as pillars. Still, the shift to emphasize quality development and enhancement entails that QA systems can attend to a wider range of considerations than before. This article studies…

In this theoretical paper, we reflect on the optimistic neoliberal fantasies that are played out in today's education, even though that they rarely live up to their promises. Inspired by Lauren Berlant's concept of cruel optimism, and psychoanalytical thinkers as Slavoj Žižek and Ilan Kapoor, and their focus on concepts such as fantasy, desire,…

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 study explores early career academics' (ECAs) professional learning in a Danish university's Professional Learning (PL) program, based on problem- and project-based learning (PBL) principles. Using a complexity theory lens, professional learning is viewed as a dynamic process involving intrapersonal, behavioral, relational, and contextual…

The purpose of this study is to determine the direction of causality between the quality of education and technological development for the selected Northern European countries over the period 2006-2017. To this end, we employ the bootstrap panel causality test. The findings of our study indicate that the quality of education leads to changes in…

With the increased use of data in the governance of education, studies on how human beings interact with data become increasingly important. Recent scholarship has conceptualized human responses to data through the notion of affectivity. While this conceptualization offers a viable alternative to previous rational choice theorizations of human…

A plethora of micro-credentialing research and pilots are underway across Canada and around the world led by academic researchers, government, and industry. The intensity is creating a perfect storm of opportunity that is reframing assessment practices. Exploring their utility for admission and transfer into higher education, the focus of this…

The Bologna Process was an attempt to build and coordinate OECD countries' higher education systems through, "inter alia," strategic public investment. The Lisbon Strategy 2000-2010 was a continuation of the Bologna process that also highlighted the coordination of education and research based on market-based funding models. Similarly,…