Recent decades have seen a global shift in educational policy and practice towards various forms of "joining-up," through partnerships and networks. These networks have differing aims but are broadly geared towards increasing quality and/or innovation in educational provision, although many prove messy and problematic. Policy makers in…

This article explores Meyerson and Scully's concept of 'tempered radicalism' (1995) in the context of contemporary academic practice and identity. We report on a collaborative autoethnographic study which addressed the question: 'What does the concept of tempered radicalism mean to us as academics in contemporary higher education?' We explore how…

Narratives on innovation in education are spreading fast and both national and local educational administrations have been recently promoting innovation policies and programmes in many different European contexts. Academic literature analysing the potential benefits of innovation in education has expanded accordingly, with some international…

Applying qualitative methods, this paper examines the burgeoning of quality assurance databases, processes and networks of actors in the field of higher education in Europe. Our main argument is that there has been a move from the Bologna Process being the near singular focus for European-level coordination and harmonisation of higher education,…

Ecosystemic cooperation among the state, municipalities, and commercial actors is evident in the public education of Finland. The edu-ecosystems can include firm interdependences, value creation, co-specialisation, and co-evolution with an aim to sell products and services to the global market as well as to open up markets in a particular country.…

This study investigates the value essence of "Double reduction" ("Shuang jian") policy in China from a perspective of policy narrative. It examines three values essences of "Double reduction" (Shuang jian) policy, including the core value of running schools: student-centered education; the leading value of running…

This article examines the intents and effects of China's national policies to promote a synergistic approach to university-industry collaborative education. These policies set out to reduce the academia-industry disconnection for engineering education. Based on document analysis and interviews with various types of stakeholders, the study reveals…

In this article we examine the European Semester as an innovative form of policy coordination, with distinct effects on education and skills policies for Member States. We analyse the Semester's framing of education policy, and examine its manifestations in Spain and Sweden, two countries considered to be different in their approach to education.…

Purpose: This article provides a policy review of the Greater Bay Area (GBA) development strategies and their relevance to higher education. Design/Approach/Methods: This article reviews key GBA policies adopted by the central government of China and interprets higher education cooperation policies at provincial and national levels before…

This article focuses on the co-operation between the Swedish National Agency for Education and school actors at the municipal level, examined from the latter's perspective, within the context of a state-initiated school improvement programme, namely Co-operation for the Best School Possible (CBS). Co-operation between different levels of the…

This paper traces the development of the European Sectoral Social Dialogue in Education since its launch in 2010 and situates it within the context of European Union (EU) governance. The paper adopts a public policy perspective and Ashley Jochim and Peter May's framework for analysing boundary-spanning policy regimes. Based on critical discourse…

This paper looks at youth mobility as an ongoing, dynamic, processual experience in the making of an educational trajectory. By exploring the experiences of students who have undertaken more than one mobility experience under the Erasmus + program, we reflect on how underlying motivations change over the course of subsequent mobility experiences.…

This paper presents a case study of a local school network in England that is well established as a provider of initial teacher education (ITE). School networks are now the favoured providers of ITE in England in a 'school-led' system. Our evidence comes from participant observation and interviews conducted over a five-month period (more than 400…

Several authors have underlined that processes of Europeanisation of education emerge despite the European Union's lack of formal power in this area. This article argues on the contrary that its lack of power precisely enables the EU to open up a range of possibilities for its involvement in this sector, among which the ET2020 Working Groups (WG)…

The mobility of international students is a crucial tool for the European Union's goal of creating a unified European Higher Education Area. Despite the initial assumption that all European universities and students can benefit equally from cross-university study experiences, certain European regions have become disproportionately favored over…