Parent-generated revenue in public schools, in the form of fee-giving or fundraising, is fast developing as a robust source of financial revenue for public schools in OECD countries. In this paper we draw on a comprehensive empirical dataset of parent-generated financial revenue for public schools located in New South Wales, Australia. We draw on…

The notion of selecting students based on academic achievement into different schools at certain points in their educational careers is one that has long been contested in education. In this paper I consider the role selective schooling may play in driving families' demand for private tutoring -- a phenomenon currently growing in many regions of…

In this paper the authors examine the role the Dutch gymnasium continues to play in the institutional maintenance of educational inequality. To that end they examine the relational and spatial features of state-sponsored elite education in the Dutch system: the unique identity the gymnasium seeks to cultivate; its value to its consumers; its…

Parents around the globe are increasingly understood to contribute to educational inequality through their choice of schools. This important critique risks minimising the way choice systems may favour certain parents over others. A case study of Singapore and its primary school enrolment process helps illustrate how parent's interactions with…

Despite Public-Private Partnerships' (PPPs) growing popularity within education policy circles, research on their effects yields contradictory results. The understanding of PPP effects is limited by the prevalence of generalist analyses that neglect to acknowledge the exceptional heterogeneity of the policy frameworks in which PPPs crystallize.…

This paper examines educational segregation in the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro through the lens of a multifaceted centreperiphery relationship involving geographical, racial and historical dimensions. The paper first situates Brazilian racial inequalities historically, drawing on decolonial theory, before examining student enrolment patterns…

In this paper Merry examines in detail the continued--and curious--popularity of religious schools in an otherwise "secular" twenty-first century Europe. To do this he considers a number of motivations underwriting the decision to place one's child in a religious school and delineates what are likely the best empirically supported…

This paper examines the politics of policy-borrowing in Korean education. I use the term "loanwords" as a metaphor for the practice in some Korean educational sectors of using borrowed English-origin educational rhetoric to create actual policy reform. I argue that discourses of choice and diversity, as loanwords, are initially…

Examines modes of competition for entry to selective Japanese universities using data on graduates from five high schools. Describes four models of selection modes, with "contest mobility" and "tournament mobility" corresponding to myths about U.S. and Japanese selection processes. Connects such myths to different national…

Presents a historical overview of selection mechanisms determining admission to higher education in Hungary. Discusses traditional centralized control of society and education, shifts in university admission criteria from family background and financial position to political reliability to knowledge and competence, and current trends. Contains 30…

Looks at the problem in the Federal Republic of Germany over the past two decades of regulating access to higher education in the face of a growing demand for admission. (SJL)

Examines international trends in selection for higher education, as well as school-leaving examinations and university access in South Africa. Discusses tensions between educational quality and equity related to access. Describes equitable admissions criteria instituted at the University of the Western Cape, and some dilemmas encountered by…

Delineates the political movements and tensions within Austria that thwarted plans for comprehensive schooling and led to a decision in 1982 to abandon the idea of major, structural educational reform. Looks at reasons for the existence of the current selective school system and improvement measures being tried. (JHZ)

Examines yobiko, Japanese supplementary education system which prepares high school graduates who didn't pass college entrance examinations (ronin students) to retake tests. Examines ways yobiko tracks and places graduates. Examines system's relations to high-school tracking and subcultures. Examines current reforms and yobiko's impact on ronins'…

Discusses the attempt, during China's Cultural Revolution (1968-1976), to sever links between school performance, often dependent on social class, and admission to higher education and resulting upward mobility. Most students then felt it useless to study because success or failure at school work had no bearing on their future. (MH)