Beginning in the mid-1980s, European governments have increasingly implemented performance-based funding systems for higher education. While a focus on the transnational pressures that contributed to the widespread adoption of performance-based funding in Europe accounts for the impetus for performance-based funding policies, it fails to address…

India, with the third largest higher education system globally, has the lowest gross enrolment ratio compared to G20 nations. The National Education Policy 2020 has made a strong recommendation to enhance the gross enrolment ratio for higher education to 50% by 2035. This figure stood at 19.4% in 2010 and 28.4% in 2021-22. The study, therefore,…

Mainland China's domestic academic literature on foreign issues can be regarded as a reference for its policymaking since the early stages of the "Reform and Opening Up". This investigation constructs a multi-theoretical framework for examining and interpreting mainland China's domestic academic narrative surrounding higher education…

In Germany, dual learning programmes are increasingly offered by higher education institutions. These programmes' main characteristic and greatest challenge is their integration of academic and vocational learning. So far, this challenge has frequently been stated without specifying its exact nature and consequences for learners. The present study…

Although it is a highly developed industrial country and generally known as technologically savvy, Germany lags internationally in digital transformation. Moreover, Germany's progress in Higher Education (HE) is uneven since 16 federal states have responsibility for education, including Higher Education. The pandemic has reinforced the importance…

Purpose: This paper aims to ask how the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) has orchestrated a sustainable development (SD) agenda in its international policy since 2020. Design/methodology/approach: By drawing on theoretical ideas around policy orchestration as a key UN governing strategy and applying them to the analysis of the progression of…

Purpose: This study analyzed the developmental history and specific practical approaches of transcultural education in German universities and summarized its experiences to provide meaningful suggestions for transcultural education in Chinese universities. Design/Approach/Methods: This study systematically reviewed and analyzed the historical…

Self-regulation in the governance of higher education systems is often assumed to improve institutional performance, accountability, and responsiveness. Although studies of higher education governance have addressed the extent of self-regulation across national systems, there has been less investigation of the links between self-regulation and…

In this article, we examine how policy documents from three European countries -- the Netherlands, Germany and England -- position a key outcome of higher education: the development of high-level professionals. Our findings show significant differences between the policies in the three countries in terms of in definitions of high-level…

Against the backdrop of an increasingly interconnected world as well as the growing role of inter- and supranational organizations, policy transfer has become a widespread phenomenon, not least in the realm of education. While policy transfer research has focused predominantly on isolated education sectors, less is known about the overall…

This article examines post-study work rights (PSWR) policy in three major international higher education destinations -- Australia, Germany and Canada -- through a comparative case study approach. The study found that PSWR policies typically have several objectives: to attract more international students; fill labour shortages; internationalise…

In today's digital society, the quest for sustainable development requires a paradigm shift in policy making, education, and individual lifestyle choices. This study explores the impact of informal education through communication technologies, with a specific focus on the social media network Instagram, to promote education for sustainable…

In the early years of the twenty-first century, the European Union faced an influx of refugees from war-torn areas of the world. By the end of 2015, nearly a million new refugees had arrived in Germany alone, half of them from Syria. Understanding how the Syrian refugee population has interacted with the German system of higher education is…

This paper explores how university staff in Denmark, Germany, and England perceived higher education (HE) policy as impacting the experience of being a student in their respective countries. While, in each nation, different policy mechanisms were identified as having triggered transformations in the experience of being a student, the…

International student mobility (ISM) prepares young people for the challenges of global and multicultural environments. However, disadvantaged students have lower participation rates in mobility schemes and, hence, benefit less from their positive impacts on career progression. Therefore, policymakers aim to make mobility programs more inclusive.…