Module A of the OECD Higher Education Policy Survey (HEPS) 2022 elicited information on policies to promote digitalisation of higher education in OECD member and accession countries. In total, 30 jurisdictions responded, providing comparative information on various areas of digitalisation policy, from regulation and governance to financial and…

The COVID-19 crisis has led to widespread temporary school closures and a deep economic recession. School closures have threatened children's ability to learn and later return to school well prepared. The impact of the economic recession is going to be even more devastating: first for students, but also for the ability of some Catholic schools to…

Assessment has long been at the center of education policy debates, and for good reason. The goal of schooling is to maximize student learning, and assessments provide a picture of what students know and are able to do. Assessments also have a strong influence on what goes on in classrooms. The United States is now poised to make the most dramatic…

Drawing on records of parliamentary debates, this paper investigates the first Commonwealth intervention in schooling. It reveals that compulsory provisions associated with formal schooling were employed to support a policy of compelling boys to undertake training. It shows how military training was positioned as a neglected aspect of ordinary…

Four articles explore the concept of national security and its impact on freedom of information, historically and currently, in the United States (Harold C. Relyea, Steven L. Katz), Australia (Richard Alston), and the United Kingdom (David Goldberg). (CLB)

Stressing the importance of comparing the experiences of indigeneous people throughout the world, this article reviews history of British aboriginal relations in New Zealand and Australia, thus shedding a new perspective on Indian affairs in North America. (Author/ DS)

This report estimates costs of feeding and clothing Australian children at a basic survival level. Detailed information is provided on the types of costs incurred by families at different income levels and with children of different ages. After a brief introduction characterizing the study and summarizing findings, discussion focuses on the…

Australian education has experienced three reform cycles: the 1970s federal intervention weakening states' centralized dominance; mid-1980s state-government "corporate managerial" reforms; and the 1990s "Tripartite Alliance" (of government, business, and unions). Current issues include national curriculum, ministerial controls,…

Two key periods in the history of Australian child care policies are examined and speculative comparisons with British policies are made. During World War II, perceptions of the need for organized child care in Australia were tied almost exclusively to the war-related need for women's labor. During 1942, the question of child care for children of…

This paper examines the context of current social policy and analyzes the bureaucratic impediments to achieving greater coordination of programs and services for Australia's Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders. Specifically, the paper demonstrates how a "national commitment" involving bureaucratic rationality and imperatives continues…

This newsletter's first article is the director's report "Double Standards in Australian Family Policy" by Don Edgar. It asks for government support for families in the form of programs and funding, not just rhetoric. The next article, "IFS Research", also by Don Edgar, details the past, current and future research of the…

This paper reports the results of a study of the implementation of multicultural education policy initiatives in Australia. An outline of the study's methods follows brief discussions of the emergence of multicultural education as a policy issue and the context of multicultural education in Australia. To assess the impact of multicultural…