The aim of this article is to illuminate and discuss evaluation and evaluation systems in relation to the pace of change. It is argued that evaluation promotes and accelerates change. The article will thus contribute to a critical scrutiny of evaluation as a societal phenomenon and as a widespread practice in education. To accomplish this aim, the…

A series of worldwide projects concerning assessment, student outcomes and quality in higher education has revealed the need for a change in how higher education institutions assess student outcomes; however, many academics remain unconvinced. The success of assessment change arguably depends on the assessment culture within the institution. This…

In 2011, new teacher education programmes were introduced in Sweden. This policy case study examines the outcome of the reform, focusing on the pedagogic discourses in the examination practise of the primary teacher education programme, but also on the possible effects of dividing teacher education for primary teachers into two specialisations:…

Sweden possesses a highly deregulated school system in which students in the compulsory school system are free to choose almost any school they prefer. This study focuses on the long-term difference in educational level twelve years after finishing elementary school for students who made a school choice compared to those who did not. The study…

Recent reforms in England and the USA give evidence that teaching methods and content can change rapidly, given a strong external pressure, for example through economic incentives, inspections, school choice, and public display of schools' and pupils' performances. Educational activities in the Scandinavian countries have increasingly become…

By analysing five separate OECD reviews of evaluation and assessment practices with Norway and Sweden as cases, our study illustrates different ways in which a specific international educational reasoning is blended into more context-based national education policies and, as such, works in parallel with internal reforms and agendas. It is evident…

New forms of activities now shape and govern the Swedish education system, based on governance through comparison. The focus on comparison can be regarded as soft governance and different types of (self-) evaluations and valuations are, at present, deeply embedded keystones in the decentralised education system. Recently this has, together with…

The purpose of this article is to address the question of "Pedagogik" as an academic discipline in Sweden based on a social study of the science's point of departure. The philosophical and epistemological issues which constitute the conceptual questions about the nature and content of educational science are, although crucial, peripheral…

The state of a higher education evaluation project aimed at improving efficiency and increasing the capacity for self-renewal in higher education at the beginning of 1978 is described. The working methods of the project include: building up a knowledge base from literature and from foreign and Swedish universities and colleges; examining problems…

When studying different types of returns to education, educational reforms are commonly used in the economics literature as a source of exogenous variation in education. The Swedish compulsory school reform is one example; the reform extended compulsory education throughout the country, in different municipalities at different points in time. Such…

This publication presents speeches, papers and discussion from a seminar on higher education in Europe, particularly in the Nordic counties of Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and Finland, as well as Eastern European countries. Following an introduction the opening speech by Alexander Sannikov, the UNESCO Secretariat, is reproduced. Part I contains papers…

This article is an analysis of the social and political implications of changes in school assessment practices. It is based on two interview surveys carried out by the Swedish National Agency for Schools. These surveys, commissioned by the Swedish government, sought answers to questions raised about the consequences of a criterion-referenced…

The process and aims of university evaluation are discussed from the perspectives of the evaluation commission, university vice-chancellor, and dean of faculty of forestry at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, evaluated by the ministry of agriculture. Focus on the link between quality assessment and educational improvement is…

A large central government providing numerous public services has long been a hallmark of Swedish society, which is also well-known for its pursuit of equality. Yet in the 1990s, Sweden moved away from this tradition in education, introducing market-oriented reforms that decentralized authority over public schools and encouraged competition…