This Go8 Backgrounder explores the possible uses of compacts in government financing of university activities, examines their potential costs and benefits, and outlines principles for their design and implementation. The Government has committed to compacts as an element of its future funding arrangements with public universities but has not yet…

This article reviews the policies for disadvantaged children in western countries since the mid-sixties. First, it analyses the design and results of the "classic programmes" of positive discrimination such as the American Title I programme, and the English, Dutch, Flemish and French priority areas policies. It discusses the differences…