Explanatory typologies have recently experienced a renaissance as a research strategy for constructing and assessing causal explanations. However, both the new methodological works on explanatory typologies and the way such typologies have been used in practice have been affected by two shortcomings. First, no elaborate procedures for assessing…

In this paper, I argue for more and better learning metrics in higher education, eventually through an international, comparative assessment of students' learning outcomes. Better learning measures may help to improve transparency in the system by addressing the information asymmetry problem. If not addressed adequately, the lack of transparency…

This article argues that strong interrelations between methodological and theoretical advances exist. Progress in, especially comparative, methods may have important impacts on theory evaluation. By using the example of the "Varieties of Capitalism" approach and an international comparison of higher education systems, it can be shown…

The report examines the development and implementation of performance indicators at institutions of higher education, through presentation of position statements on 11 countries: Australia, Austria, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Greece, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, and United Kingdom. General conclusions are summarized in an introductory…

This article examines issues arising in the design and conduct of a research project spanning seven countries and five national languages. With a shared focus on leadership for learning among the participating twenty four schools and eight university sites, the challenge was to find a common methodology that would allow comparison across cultures…