This study examines the nature of adult engagement in lifelong learning in Taiwan. Previous studies have shown that gender and socioeconomic status (SES) are key variables related to equal access to education. Are these variables related to adults' engagement in lifelong learning in a specific country? This study analysed data from a survey of…

India has witnessed substantial diversification of provision to basic education. Policy changes from 1980s onwards, has seen the creation of para-formal delivery systems and the inclusion in the system of non state providers. The Education Guarantee Scheme and the Alternate Initiatives in Education programmes have generated new pathways to access.…

Against a backdrop of some two decades of sustained economic growth in Ghana, this paper argues that there are a series of sustainability challenges related to technical and vocational skills development (TVSD) that need to be addressed. This paper analyses several sustainability dimensions of TVSD related to: promoting the sustainability of…

Turkey is expected to be a full member of the European Union (EU) by 2013. In the course of its integration into the EU, Turkey has been simultaneously facing access, quality, and equity issues in education. Over the past decade, substantial progress has been made on increasing the access. However, improving the country's low level of education…

Australia's Higher Education Contribution Scheme (HECS) is an income contingent loan scheme, in which university students pay back part of the costs of their tuition after their post-university income reaches a certain threshold, is an important policy innovation for the financing of higher education. However, its critics claim that HECS increases…

This article analyses the innovation agenda of the European Union (EU), places it in the context of globalisation and explores its foundation in the theoretical innovation systems perspective. It analyses a number of the central policy domains of this agenda: higher education, doctoral education, research and knowledge transfer. In the second part…

This article examines the access policies in Portuguese higher education, from the 1974 revolution to the present. Recently, under the simultaneous pressure of a declining birth rate and increasing financial stringency, higher education institutions, both public and private, have started to compete for students, while responding to increasing…

The principle of equality states that it is bad for some people to be worse off than others. In the context of distance education, this principle is violated on those occasions where on-campus students have access, not only to all the resources available to distance education students, but also to face-to-face tutorials. This is because the…

Demand for university education has increased due to the recent innovations of universal, free and compulsory education at the basic and senior secondary education level. Education has been expanding very rapidly at all levels in Nigeria. However, there are serious problems related to quality, equity, unavailable human and material resources and…

The linkage between the impact of assessment and compliance with children's rights is a connection, which although seemingly obvious, is nonetheless rarely made, particularly by governments, which, as signatories to the relevant human rights treaties, have the primary responsibility for ensuring that educational practice is compatible with…

The condition of higher education is an important indicator of a nation's competitiveness in the modern knowledge-based world economy. Higher education builds up a nation's human resources by equipping students with advanced knowledge, professional skills, and critical and creative thinking ability. Higher education institutions are significant,…

The research reported in this paper considers the current telecommunications network for the three education systems of state, independent and catholic schools in Western Australia as well as drawing on the personal experiences of teachers in these systems as the government attempts to close the digital divide with its Networking the Nation…

This paper draws on a four-year longitudinal ESRC funded project examining learning experiences of disabled students in higher education in four universities. The focus here is on institutional responses to the demands of audit culture and legislation in relation to making reasonable adjustments for students with impairments. The data comes from…

The People's Republic of China has seen a dramatic growth in its economy in recent years. It has a rapidly increasing population of approximately 1.2 billion people, though the population is still largely rural with about 80% of people living outside urban areas. China in its Education Law (1995) restated its commitment to universal education. In…

This article examines the most recent data on the cost and financing of a post-secondary education. It also examines the burgeoning debate in Canada about the relationship between tuition fees and access to post-secondary education. In recent years longitudinal data collection has improved and there is now a relatively wide body of research…