This article describes the emergence of higher education as a field of research, scholarship and study. In the first part, the meaning of higher education as a field of research is defined contrasting Europe and the US. Then, the institutional basis of higher education research in Europe is analysed (learned societies, institutes and centres,…

In this article, global and other university rankings are critically assessed with regard to their unintended side effects and their impacts on the European and national landscape of universities, as well as on individual institutions. An emphasis is put on the effects of ranking logics rather than on criticising their methodology. Nevertheless,…

The first part of the article provides an overview of the changing policy contexts in Europe and North America in which doctoral education and training are embedded and points out the similarities and differences of the ongoing debates and concerns about doctoral education in the two world regions. The second part provides some insight into the…

Issues in the reconceptualization of the relationship between higher education and employment, especially in the European countries, are examined. It is proposed that higher education can influence employment patterns and trends in ways that are currently underestimated, and that a new approach to the study of this relationship should focus on the…

Discussion of the relationship between higher education and employment in Europe looks at literature previously published in this journal concerning response to changing demands in nonuniversity education since the 1960s, diversification of higher education systems, blurring of sector boundaries in response to employment problems, worker…