The growing interest for measurement of learning outcomes relates to long lines of development in higher education, the request for accountability, intensified through international reforms and movements such as the development and implementation of qualifications frameworks. In this article, we discuss relevant literature on different approaches…

Increasing focus worldwide on accountability and quality assurance in universities has forced senior management to develop policies to address academic support at institutional-level. One such area is the mathematical and statistical skills that students in many disciplines need to succeed. In common with many countries, large numbers of students…

This Semiannual Report presents the activities and accomplishments of the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Inspector General (OIG) from April 1, 2022, through September 30, 2022. The report highlights the audits, investigations, and related work issued during this time frame. Sections include: (1) Pandemic Relief Oversight; (2) Disaster…

Systemic racism represents a major barrier to the effective resolution of sustainability challenges. Resolving these challenges requires understanding, cooperation and strategic action across industries and societies. Volume III of "No Sustainability Without Justice: An Anthology on Racial Equity and Social Justice" shares perspectives…

With the cost of college soaring and the national six-year completion rate below 60 percent, the federal government's support for higher education faces heightened scrutiny. What kind of regulation and accountability should Congress impose on Washington's hefty funding of Pell grants and subsidized loans? As legislators turn their attention to…

This publication is an overview of Higher Education in California to provide readers with a deeper understanding about how the public systems work. The primer outlines the mission, enrollment, cost of attendance, and governance and funding structure of each of California's public higher education systems. This resource also provides critical facts…

As the higher education landscape has expanded beyond issues of access and affordability to include an emphasis on student completion and employment outcomes, accreditors can play a leadership role in advancing this important change. A shift to student success that rightfully centers in part on closing equity gaps between low-income students and…

In 2020 the Australian Government reviewed the "Disability Standards for Education 2005" (the Standards). The Standards help to make sure students with disability can access and participate in education and training on the same basis as students without disability. This includes preschool, school, vocational education and training, and…

This article explores how new public management policy ideas and technologies circulating in the globalised education space have been re-contextualised in the re-design of the Italian Higher Education System. In doing so, it uses the governmentality studies as a sensitising framework to problematise what we term here as the "calculative and…

Data quality has become a pressing issue for many campuses in recent years, as colleges struggle to extract timely, accurate, and consistent information from ever-proliferating institutional data sources in order to meet strategic decision-making and accountability demands. In this mixed methods study, a survey and semi-structured interviews were…

The COVID-19 pandemic (in conjunction with the Black Lives Matter Movement) exposed pervasive inequities, challenges, and opportunities to explore and implement "best" pedagogical practices to improve how we address social justice issues. Moreover, the COVID-19 pandemic intensified intergenerational gaps for the already vulnerable,…

"Varying Degrees 2021: New America's Fifth Annual Survey on Higher Educati­­on" interviewed 2,620 Americans ages 18 and older to better understand their perceptions of education after high school, including oversamples of Black, Latinx, Asian Americans, current undergraduate students, and student loan borrowers. It provides important…

Kevin Carey, vice president for education policy and knowledge management at New America, notes that lawmakers charged with writing a new Higher Education Act (HEA) face a dilemma. Innovation in the higher-ed marketplace is badly needed to improve student learning and break the relentless cycle of increasing cost that puts college out of reach for…

Academic institutions worldwide, from primary schools to universities, use grades or marks as a fundamental sorting and signaling mechanism for students. The grades awarded to students should be indicative of learning outcomes. However, do the grades awarded today accurately reflect student achievement in the classroom? Grade inflation has become…

Sense-making is a process of engaging with complex and dynamic environments that provides organisations and their leaders with a flexible and agile model of the world. The seven key properties of sense-making describe a process that is social and that respects the range of different stakeholders in an organisation. It also addresses the need to…