While the literature in skill formation systems has paid considerable attention to inter-variation between types of national skill formation systems and intra-variation among individual types as in the case of collective skill formation systems, less is known about the role of the European Union in establishing a European model of skill formation.…

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…

In this article, we analyse changes in the contemporary management of private Catholic schools under State contract in France since the 1980s. Writing from a "policy sociology" perspective, we use data from previous studies on policy and on public and private schools as well as from an ongoing research project comparing policies of…

The relationship between the state and higher education institutions has always been a complex one. The "state" itself in this context is a heterogeneous mix of elite people--bureaucrats, politicians, committees of co-opted academics and business leader--and it increasingly faces pressures from diverse stakeholders, including students…

The Humboldtian educational ideal is based on the idea of the unity of teaching and research in universities ("Einheit von Forschung und Lehre"). The role of the state, according to Humboldt, was to fund universities in such a way that their autonomy was maintained. Much has changed in the funding mechanisms of higher education systems…

Political problems arising from the conflict between central and regional authorities are examined through a case study of a lieutenant general of the French provincial government in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Journal available from Canadian Journal of History, Box 384, Sub Post Office No. 6, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, 2N7 OWO,…

The transformation of higher education systems under the pressure of new needs required by the "society of knowledge" in France and Italy has had a deep effect on the relationship between state and university, and therefore a direct impact on university governance. This article sums up the main results of a research carried out on…

Four separate but overlapping power centers in French universities are described and discussed: the state authority (minister), faculty, political and trade unions, and students. Confrontations between these powers have characterized French higher education in the last 15 years, and they have been at the root of the concept of autonomy. (MSE)

The attempt to give the third and fourth years of university study in France more vocational relevance (the second cycle reform of 1976) is analyzed in relation to the fundamental transformations taking place in French higher education in the areas of access to higher education, institutional diversification, and university governance. Although…

A discussion of the changing relationship between the state and higher education in nine industrialized countries looks at conflicting requirements for institutional accountability, different models for the relationship; politics and governance; the developing role of central intermediary agencies; changing perspectives of student protest; and the…

This paper describes the results of a study conducted by the Center for Educational Research and Innovation regarding language policies and programs in five countries which belong to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development: Canada, France, Spain, the United Kingdom, and West Germany. Part I explains the study's focus on language…

In the wake of the Supreme Court's landmark ruling upholding school choice, policymakers across the country are grappling with the challenge of funding and regulating private schools. Towns, cities, and states are experimenting with a variety of policies, including vouchers, tax credits, and charter schools. Meanwhile, public officials and…

Nineteen articles on the status of the relationship among educational research, policy, and practice around the world are collected in the 1985 edition of the "World Yearbook of Education." Contributors address the development of national policies on educational research in countries in North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia, and…

Major public policies for institutional governance in France, Sweden, and the United Kingdom over the past two decades are reviewed, and factors that may account for differences in policy developments in the three countries are considered. In France and (although only recently) in Sweden, politics have aimed at increasing institutional autonomy in…

A comparative analysis of the process by which conflicting interests are implemented in the higher education systems of the United States, England, Sweden, and France is presented. Attention is also directed to differentiation in these systems, and to the systems' receptiveness to such differentiation (i.e., splitting up existing functions, or…