This article outlines Labour ideals and values, and demonstrates the tensions between egalitarian and meritocratic imperatives for the reform agendas Labour governments pursued in office and the educational settlements reached. It challenges 'common sense' interpretations of elites and elite education and fixed 'ability' thinking, and promotes the…

There is a growing consensus in political science research that higher education systems are classifiable into stable distinct types that reflect dominant trends in government partisanship. There is also a large body of higher education research that argues that higher education systems are changing and converging upon a neoliberal type, which is…

The prospect of the increase in tuition fees in England from 2012 pulled learning and teaching into the limelight as universities sought to safeguard student recruitment and league table positions in an envisioned new era of increased market competition. As each institution sought to market itself to potential students with a specific learning and…

In the years since the second Thatcher government (1983-87), and continuing until the present, universities in the UK have been subjected to a series of neoliberal reforms which have had a deleterious effect on academics' working conditions and on the kind of research they are required to produce. 1986 saw the introduction of regular sector wide…

This article gives an account of the use of knowledges from emerging scientific fields in education and youth policy making under the Coalition government (2010-15) in the UK. We identify a common process of "translation" and offer three illustrations of policy-making in the UK that utilise diverse knowledges produced in academic fields…

Through an analysis of the foundation of the so-called "new universities" in the UK, this article offers an interpretation of the change process in higher education. The argument is that although change is driven by economic and social forces, it is the political interpretation of these forces that steers the change process…

The DfE's 2010 white paper "The Importance of Teaching" set out the Coalition's aim to "create a school system which is self-improving". In this inaugural lecture, Toby Greany assesses progress to date and the Coalition Government's approach to developing a self-improving system. He argues that the Coalition is following at…

The Green Paper "Fulfilling our Potential: Teaching Excellence, Social Mobility and Student Choice" [BIS. 2015. Sheffield: Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.…

Government plans to increase social mobility in the United Kingdom place a strong emphasis on improving education to ensure more equal life chances for everyone. As Secretary of State for Education between 2010 and 2014, Michael Gove declared that he was "determined to do everything I can to help the poorest children in our country"…

William Taylor's 1969 chapter provides a springboard to reflect on how what he termed administrator training has developed since the 1960s. Responding also to Baron's insistence in the same volume that education be viewed as political, the article adopts a critical perspective, focusing on leader preparation programmes and exploring how they…

In this article the author argues that an incoming government should establish a new values base for educational policy focused on the well-being and educational entitlement of all children rather than the education market. A new government must prioritise learning and teaching: rather than pursuing an ideological agenda and attempting to control…

Purpose: An overview of English aims, theoretical scope and methods is badly needed. Ministries throughout the English-speaking world have become dominated by a demand for testing -- stimulated no doubt by regular Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) surveys -- and lost sight of first principles. The purpose of this…

The United Kingdom (UK) has dramatically increased the supply of graduates over the last four decades. The university system has successfully produced a huge increase in mass higher education over the last 40 years to meet an increased demand for skilled workers. It is one of the UK's most successful export industries in terms of attracting…

The internationalization of higher education globally continues to grow more and more towards commercialization and neoliberalism paths, despite growing concerns about the underlying consequences. Building further on our work and using Saudi Arabia as a national case, this article critically investigates how and in what ways the Saudi government's…

In the last ten years teacher education in the further education (FE) sector has witnessed a substantial reform of teacher training with the introduction of qualifications designed to meet the professional needs of people in different teaching or training situations across the sector. The assumption of the new system is that workforce issues and…