Background: Educational opportunities and access vary according to location. In rural areas, the cultural, social and material consequences for local communities depend on the nature and degree of support for rural schools. There is a need to understand more about how the organisation of vocational education and training (VET), and the activities…

With a view to identifying inclusive policies and good practices to respond to the many challenges that refugee students face to access higher education in their host country, this Policy Paper has conducted a review of available statistical data and literature. In addition, six selected countries with considerable refugee populations have been…

According to globalisation theories, the importance of international organisations such as UNESCO and EU regarding processes of policy-making is increasing and it is no longer the nation state alone that is regulating policy. Focusing on equity and social justice as central topics of the global discourse, the article raises the question of how…

This study extends the comparative model of country groups to analyse the cross-national trends in the higher education expansion and opportunities. We use descriptive data on characteristics and outcomes of higher education systems in different countries groups, including the liberal market countries, the social democratic countries, the…

This article examines cross-country variations in adult skills inequality and asks why skills in Anglophone countries are so unequal. Drawing on the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's recent Survey of Adult Skills and other surveys, it investigates the differences across countries and country groups in inequality in both…

The United States and Norway represent two distinctively different attempts to equalize educational opportunity. Whereas the United States has focused on expansion and the proliferation of lower-tier open-access institutions, Norway has emphasized institutional streamlining and the equalization of living conditions. At the same time, the two…

An evaluation is made of the extent to which Scandinavian higher education has been democratized, noting democratization includes the four elements of: subordination of university decision making to parliamentary democracy and to corporate representative bodies; decentralization of higher education regionally; equal access to higher education on…

This book presents a collection of essays on the effect of national policies and practices on women's access to higher education, the type of courses in which women are enrolled, women's roles as academics, and how the outcomes of higher education affect women in the academic workforce and the economy. Various countries are represented in the…

Reports on recent developments and problems in the diversification of tertiary education in seven Western European countries are presented by members of the Working Party on the Diversification of Tertiary Education. Policy analysis and evaluation and recommendations for future policy are also provided. As a policy, diversification refers to the…

"Minority children" experience a lot of shifts in their cultural contexts. The author's work as a professional teacher in multicultural classes enabled her to focus on the research questions presented in this article. These questions concern the need for some minority children to achieve equal opportunities in the Norwegian educational…

In this report, learning conditions in Norwegian workplaces were examined to identify ways of making workplaces more conducive to learning. Data were collected through interviews in 11 firms and a questionnaire survey of 1,300 private sector and 200 public sector employees. Opportunities to learn through work varied widely. Older women with little…

In addition to an "Introduction" (Gonon, et. al), there are these 18 essays: "Women and Men in Swiss Vocational Education (Borkowsy); "Women in Basic and Advanced Training" (Grossenbacher); "How Constitutional Change and Legal Reform Projects Foster Equal Opportunities in the Fields of Vocational Education and Higher…

Adult education for indigenous peoples in Norway was examined. First, information on government institutions, indigenous organizations, international agencies, and nongovernmental organizations engaged in adult education for Norway's indigenous peoples was compiled. Next, questionnaires and survey techniques were used to research the policy and…