This paper brings together some key concepts and proposes a conceptual framework for understanding and evaluating determinants of learning outcomes. The framework facilitates the process of theorizing and hypothesizing on the relationships and processes concerning lifelong learning as well as their antecedents and consequences. The specific aims…

One of the best ways to avoid being poor as an adult is to obtain a good education. Individuals with higher academic achievement and more years of schooling earn more than those with lower levels of human capital. This is not surprising given that we believe that schooling makes people more productive, allowing them to command higher wages in the…

Education policy in sub-Saharan Africa is predicated on human capital assumptions and therefore promotes the expansion of formal education as a way to promote economic growth. As a result, formal education is valued primarily as a private consumer good, a form of cultural capital that allows some to get ahead and stay ahead, rather than as a…

The Australian Commonwealth government's desire to create a national policy for teacher education must be seen in the context of broader economic restructuring, which has assumed a metapolicy status and subsumed all policy domains. This brand of corporate federalism is commendable only as the Hawke Labor government's alternative to privatization.…

Educational practices based on human capital theory are unlikely to alleviate social inequities because the theory views people as isolated materialists driven by desire for goods and security. It assumes an educational meritocracy in which socioeconomic status is limited only by educational investment, and more educated people are presumed to be…

Seeking to distance themselves from the educational patterns they dislike, some contemporary advocates of academic studies overlooked an important problem that they share with the progressives they criticize. For example, Diane Ravitch blamed the absence of academics in schools on what she called the progressive educators' efforts to provide…

Student aid policy around the developed world depends to varying degrees on the idea that the cost of post-secondary education needs to be subsidized. Despite the fact that governments around the world are spending hundreds of billions of dollars to support and widen participation in higher education, policymakers pay surprisingly little attention…

This paper estimates the returns to education for adult male workers in regular and casual wage employment using Indian national survey data at three points in time spanning almost two decades. Both standard and augmented Mincerian wage equations are estimated using a set of human capital measures and other controls after addressing the issue of…

Economic success is an aim of governments around the world. Their "human capital" stance towards higher education implies the need to develop graduates' capabilities to the full. The concept of graduate "employability", currently being developed in the light of theory and empirical data, is beginning to find acceptance in the…

In recent years, due to economic restructuring, the problems Hong Kong has been facing are the "knowledge deficit" in the workforce and a shortage of well-educated manpower. The Hong Kong Government has implemented a number of continuing education policies with an ultimate goal to encourage and help the workforce to strengthen themselves…

The contribution of higher education institutions to regional development is a theme that has attracted growing attention in recent years. Knowledge institutions are increasingly expected not only to conduct education and research, but also to play an active role in the economic, social and cultural development of their regions. The extent to…

Leading researchers from the United States and Europe report on new findings on the effect of education on equal opportunity, using economic and statistical techniques to assess the results of education policy reform in countries including the United States, Britain, Sweden, Germany, and Italy. Much educational research today is focused on…

This literature review attempts to discern whether more education is actually better for the individual and society. We investigate the literature and ask: What are the economic and non-economic returns to postsecondary education investments? Who reaps the benefits of those investments? And, most important, are there sufficient returns, both…

The purpose of this paper is to introduce the transition of Korean education reform and to weigh Korean experience and achievement in contemporary higher education. The paper first of all illustrates a historical perspective on higher education in light of educational reform. Secondly, this study reviews the achievements of Korean higher education…

Devolution is rapidly becoming a tangled web of misunderstandings, distortions, and lies. It is time to unravel some of the complex issues, undisclosed interests, and manipulation masquerading under the devolution rubric. Most current redefinitions of schooling are probusiness and serve "big-town" interests. Schools should not reorganize…