The impact of demographic developments upon higher education is discussed, including the educational policy planning issue of how to meet cyclical developments in student enrollment. The teacher market in general and the faculty market in particular are described. (Author/MLW)

Drawing upon recent literature on educational inflation, overeducation, and the "diploma disease," positive and negative aspects of degreeism are examined. Suggestions are presented for addressing the problem of degreeism including: degree tax, incomes policy, improved labor market information services, and modified civil service…

This article analyzes several misconceptions about a "college-for-all" policy. These misconceptions range from those about the desirability of college for everyone and the undesirability of jobs after high school. Highlighted are rules of college and the labor market and the role of counselors in preparing students for learning and work…

Analysis of Australian higher education policy across recent Federal Labor governments and its effects on educational access and equity finds that, although social justice has been emphasized, it is mediated by economic and administrative practices that limit equity and access. (MSE)

Discusses why the stakes are so high for the nation to employ equity in the preparation and participation of all children for higher education and the workforce. Contains 24 references. (DDR)

Explores the contours of the current policy debate in Germany over higher education reform and the issues it raises for an anthropological understanding of higher education in late capitalist societies. Argues that reform proposals aim at the rehierarchization of higher education and utilizes a case study to illustrate the implications of…

Argues that staff development in public elementary and secondary schools in the United States is flawed in practice, representing a consumer market in which "proof of purchase" substitutes for investment in school improvement or individual development. A policy model for investment in school improvement is proposed. (SLD)

This paper studies the extent of graduate overeducation in Australia utilising both the objective and mean methods. As well, the paper tests for non-linear returns to overeducation. It is found that the rates of graduate overeducation vary by both gender and with the methods utilised, and stand between 21% and 46%. Non-linear returns to…

This article explores the previously quite marked absence from English policy debates on 14-19 education of issues that, in other developed countries, would be seen as key elements in the policy landscape. These are: the role of employers as providers of learning; the structure of employers' demand for skills, their recruitment and selection…

In this article we analyse the role given to education and training by policy-makers in France and Britain from 1980 onwards, in relation to their overall chosen economic (and social) strategies, and highlight conjunctions between education, exchange-rate regimes, and the level of economic openness. Britain opted for a monetarist route against…

This essay analyzes the contemporary understandings of, and the aims attributed to, "industrial" education for Africans which came to be strongly associated with "agricultural education" in the Cape Colony between 1890 and 1930. The author first sketches the early history of industrial education from the 1850s to show how this…

The California Postsecondary Education Commission recently adopted three reports dealing with postsecondary education and the economy, as part of its Higher Education Performance and Accountability Framework. The reports examined three specific measures: (1) Educational attainment of the population; (2) Links between degree attainment and…

This paper examines the use of racial and ethnic preferences in college admissions, focusing on the extent of their use and their impact on the careers of the intended beneficiaries in light of the California Civil Rights Initiative, which is designed to end such preferences. A study by Kane (1995) found that at the most selective four-year…

Economists are aware of the importance of human capital in the process of development, whereas policy makers are only now exploring its implications, pressed by demands for more jobs and higher incomes. Recent research in the dynamics of labor markets illustrates how the results can help shape education and training policy in the United States.…

The objectives of the report on underemployment are to define underemployment precisely and to explore some implications of that definition, to identify the significant causes of underemployment as defined, to investigate measurement issues related to the definition, and to make recommendations on the basis of the findings that will assist in…