Accelerating threats to a sustainable relationship between economic growth and the capacity of the global social-ecological system to support it require that the implications of competitiveness be reassessed. Today, the capacities that underlie economic competitiveness must also be brought to bear on policy and pedagogy to prepare the coming…

This article presents an argued case for making sustainable development a policy obligation for the European Training Foundation (ETF) and for vocational education and training (VET) reform in the partner countries that are served by ETF. In relation to ETF it points out that no major emphasis has been put to date on combining economic, social and…

Since 1986 when the National People's Congress ratified the Compulsory Education Law, China's achievement of nine-year compulsory basic education for its huge school-age population has been rapid and successful. However, the rate of achievement has grown unevenly across the country, reflecting the different economic development patterns of the…

The purpose of this article is to present the latest Education Lending Policy (ELP) of the European Investment Bank (EIB), adopted by the Board of Governors in 2008. It is structured in two parts. The first briefly presents the EIB in general and the evolution of its education lending portfolio in particular. This sets the stage for the second…

Beginning in the year 2000, higher education policies all over Europe were transformed by the launching and evolution of the Bologna Process, otherwise known as the process of creating a European Higher Education Area (EHEA). Initially, this process was flexible and informal, which makes the rapidity and scope of the changes it brought about…

This paper examines developments in inclusive education in Bulgaria (BG) and Bosnia and Herzegovina (B&H) in the context of actual and desired accession to the European Union respectively. It seeks to provide insights into the national special education traditions in these countries and aims to establish how these have influenced current…

The unique contribution of grandparents to families of children with and without disabilities is often overlooked in the clinical and empirical literature. Perceptions and practice of teachers regarding grandparents were examined. Eighty-two special education teachers and 80 teachers from regular classes completed a 30-item questionnaire tapping…

Benefits and risks of expanding international student exchange in the European Union are weighed, at the levels of both the individual and the host and home nations. A variety of possible approaches to expansion are considered: regulatory; noncooperative; and cooperative (discipline-specific, bilateral, multilateral on norms, and multilateral on…

Educational systems have been based on the assumption that the purpose and preferred activity in life is work, with the role of education to prepare students to make a living. Social and technological change forecast a world in which few people work, requiring drastically altered social and educational values. (Author/MSE)

The reduction of lifetime working hours in Western industrialized countries is increasing the need for research, particularly qualitative, on the leisure of the elderly. This approach has been taken in planning a new empirical study. (MSE)

The United Kingdom's system of apprenticeships and its relationship to vocational education and employment are discussed, with focus on recent government initiatives, access to apprenticeships, and efforts to coordinate training with labor market needs. (MSE)

Issues in vocationalization of the two-tier system of higher education in France are considered, including vocationally oriented professional courses; the impact of mass education; changing aims of university studies; and issues for the future, such as the balance between short-term and long-term needs. (DB)

Statistics on college students in Czechoslovakia before November 1989 are presented, and a survey of 320 students after the massive political upheaval is reported. The survey assessed student views on the new social, economic, and political situation, the status and changes in higher education, changes in higher education funding, and future…

An examination of the collaborative work structures located in and around the leading research universities of the United States offers insights for improving information processing. Collaboration is needed by the information processing society. While the academic department remains the home, the interdisciplinary research group is emerging as the…

Specific conditions and information needs of the engineer in Indonesia are described. Much foreign input is applied in development projects resulting in a continuous need for transfer of technology. Most libraries and information services are not adequately equipped to provide for the engineer's information needs. Steps are being taken to help…