The federal role in higher education has grown over the past two decades, and now a new administration has the opportunity to strengthen policies that support students and their colleges and universities. To help inform these decisions, the Urban Institute convened a bipartisan group of scholars and policy advisers to write a series of memos…

Today, examples of rapid, non-linear progress--sometimes called leapfrogging--are evident in a number of sectors. Often, these instances are most obvious in the developing world, where in telecommunications or banking, for example, whole phases of infrastructure and institution-building that other countries had to go through have been by-passed by…

Students cannot benefit from education practices they do not experience. While this seems obvious (and it is), education systems have yet to develop the capacity to help all teachers learn to make good use of evidence-based practices that enhance the quality of education for all students. The purpose of this Brief is to provide a framework that…

Much has been written about globalization and the challenge of preparing young people for the new world of work and life in times of complexity and continuous change. However, few works have examined how globalization has and will continue to shape education in the East. This volume discusses education within the context of globalization and…

With the Presidential election two months away, this paper presents a set of actions the Association of American Universities (AAU) believes the President and his Administration can take to advance the partnership between the federal government and research universities--as well as actions that universities themselves need to take to ensure that…

From Anchorage, Alaska, to Orlando, Florida, and from Gray, Maine, to Yuma, Arizona, one hundred competency-based innovators gathered at the Competency-Based Learning Summit in March 2011. Sponsored by the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) and the International Association for K-12 Online Learning (iNACOL), the Summit was developed in…

Today, the U.S. Department of Education joins the National Task Force on Civic Learning and Democratic Engagement, the American Commonwealth Partnership, and the Campaign for the Civic Mission of Schools in a new national call to action to infuse and enhance civic learning and democratic engagement for all students throughout the American…

In recent years, the information technology (IT) revolution has transformed American industry--leading to new types of work processes and business organizations, and increased productivity and consumer innovations--but by and large, this game-changer has bypassed America's schools. Virtually all K-12 schools in the country are connected to the…

Developing school leaders who are equipped with the knowledge, skills, and dispositions needed to effectively lead low-performing schools has become a critical goal for local school districts intent on dramatically improving student outcomes. Given the current criticism surrounding leadership preparation programs and the changing nature of school…

Since the 1980s higher education (HE) in the UK has been continually developing to meet the needs of a changing economy. An economy now based largely on knowledge and its transfer, rather than manual skills and labour, has led to an emphasis by the government on increasing the number of adults with high level skills to contribute to economic…

Germany has recently gone through a fundamental process of reform of its higher education system. The last 15 years have been characterised by significant changes in virtually all aspects of the system. The impacts of the Bologna Process have been far reaching. The reform of the governance and funding systems in higher education has also been…

The Group of Eight (Go8) welcomes the Government's commitment to developing a comprehensive research workforce strategy. Australia's research capacity and the continuing translation of research into policy, products and services is directly linked to the future productivity of the economy, social wellbeing, environmental outcomes and the nation's…

Academic research institutions have long been important economic anchors for New York City. They provide thousands of jobs and serve as a magnet for talented students and faculty, who inject hundreds of millions of dollars into the local economy through federal research grants. Yet, even though New York's concentration of top-fight scientific…

The paper starts with a description of higher education in the United Kingdom and of reforms over the last 50 years. By reference to specified output measures, the performance of UK universities is judged to be good. The factors affecting this performance are postulated by comparing policies and approaches in the United Kingdom with those…

A discussion of innovation in European higher education looks at governmental strategies toward higher education, instruments government uses to influence higher education, fundamental characteristics of higher education institutions, the literature on innovation in higher education, and the relationship between governmental efforts and the…