During the COVID-19 pandemic, students in higher education experienced mental health issues whereby National Unions Students & local unions, Higher Education Institutions, and governments played a role in addressing them. Mental health and wellbeing among students have been analysed by external actors as the topic has been talked about already…

Like most Western nations and regions, Flanders and Québec are characterized by increasing religious diversity and secularization. Accordingly, 'learning to live together' is a main objective in their public education programmes. In spite of this similarity, both regions seem to interpret the concept of 'living together' in a different way and…

Apart from teaching, research and service to society, since 2015 higher education systems and institutions in Europe have faced an additional expectation -- to respond to the largely unexpected yet nevertheless growing demand for higher education by refugees. This study explores system and organizational level responses to such environmental…

During the past two decades, a shared set of norms and ideas on doctoral education and its purposes has emerged. As the EU strives to transform itself into a knowledge society, countries are expected to have more doctorate holders and orient doctoral education towards the non-academic labour market. However, the interaction between the changes on…

This chapter introduces the idea of school inspectors as implementers of public policy, framing their role within the context of policy implementation and the governance of education. Using a framework for policy implementation developed by Weible and Sabatier (Handbook of public policy analysis. Taylor and Francis, London, pp. 123-136, 2006), it…

To obtain a better understanding of country-specific policies, a country-specific literature review was undertaken. The search entailed key-terms focusing on relevance and the three higher education relevance dimensions. The main outcomes of the country-specific literature review are discussed in this chapter. We do so by analysing the typically…

This paper investigates the impact of national policies for improving teaching and the school learning environment (SLE) on student achievement. In each participating country (i.e., Belgium/Flanders, Cyprus, Germany, Greece, Ireland, and Slovenia), a sample of at least 50 schools was drawn and tests in mathematics and science were administered to…

Mastery of literacy skills in the language(s) of the host country is considered a key element for the successful integration of immigrants. The current paper focuses on possibly one of the most challenging aspects of the issues of linguistic integration of immigrants, i.e., literacy acquisition by "low-literate" adult immigrants in a…

This literature review on school choice analyses the impact of choice schemes on students and on school systems focusing on equity. Reviewing the evidence can be difficult, as the literature is often fragmented and inconclusive, and the political importance of this research often results in high-profile attention given to individual studies rather…

In this paper, we address the implementation of the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) in Flanders, a sub-national entity of Belgium. Our analysis shows how the policy-making process in Flanders is inextricably intertwined with three developments in environmental and educational policy: the increasing impact of ESD policy and…

This article focuses on evidence regarding cross-national patterns of participation in adult education and an interpretation of these patterns from an institutional and public policy perspective. The interpretation follows from the perspective that sustaining high and widely distributed levels of investment in the development and maintenance of…

For the first time, a pan-European study offers a comprehensive picture of reading literacy and identifies some of the key factors impacting on the acquisition of reading skills for 3-15 year olds. It addresses four key topics: teaching approaches, tackling reading difficulties, teacher education and the promotion of reading outside school. It…

While Canada is often described as the most and France as one of the least successful countries in the realm of immigrant incorporation, the question remains unresolved of how to evaluate a country's policies for dealing with immigration and incorporation relative to that of others. Our strategy is to examine the relationships among (1) countries'…

Although there is a tendency to develop policy plans on adult education at a European level, there are still large differences between the various EU countries. These national policy contexts depend on historical, cultural, economic and political factors and can have a profound impact on the way adult education is shaped and developed within a…

This collection includes a series of reports presenting the main results of a project to identify trends in continuing education and training in eight countries throughout Western Europe. The following reports are included: "Synthesis Report," by Hilary Steedman; "Belgium," by staff at the Office National de l'Emploi;…