Global university rankings have portrayed European higher education institutions in varying lights, leading to intense reflection on the figures on the EU and national levels alike. The rankings have helped to construct a policy problem of "European higher education", framing higher education as an element of competitiveness in a global…

This article analyses the growing focus on teacher competences in European policy discourse against the backdrop of global convergences in education reforms. It traces key ideas, policy recommendations, peer learning and documents which underscore the relevance of teacher quality for education improvement, as recently stressed in the European…

Discussion on the crisis in/of the humanities and in/of the university institution has in the past decades become ubiquitous. The surge of literature on the subject strongly suggests that the problem is a genuine one. However, the variety of explanations that have been offered not only have brought along confusion, but the majority of these…

This article is based on the analysis of the changes in global university rankings and the new "products" based on rankings data in the period since mid-2011. It is a summary and continuation of the European University Association (EUA)-commissioned report "Global University Rankings Their Impact, Report II" which was launched…

We present a comparative survey between the French and Indian higher education systems. In spite of their respective idiosyncratic features, we show that the two countries have both evolved comprehensively toward a knowledge-based society, in order to ensure the prosperity of their citizens. Secondly, we single out a threefold convergence between…

The dynamic forces shaping education in the 21st century have led countries across the world to pursue sweeping educational reforms. Despite significant investment and radical approaches including system and organisational restructuring, managerialism and marketisation, evidence of sustained impact in the classroom remains elusive. Using the…

This study presents in-depth empirical analyses of drop-outs from all Swiss universities for the entire student population between 1975 and 2008. The results show that most identifiable factors associated with a greater or lesser probability of dropping out are identical to those found in a recent Systematic Review (Larsen et?al., 2013). The main…

This article discusses how Information and Communication Technologies can support 21st century assessment strategies and what needs to be done to ensure that technological advances support and foster pedagogical innovation. Based on an extensive review of the literature, it provides an overview of current ICT-enabled assessment practices, with a…

The extremely rapid expansion of open educational resource (OER) initiatives and the millions of learners they attract can be understood as an indicator of an emerging revolution in education and learning. This article describes recent developments in this area and develops conceptual foundations for studies and policies on OER. We describe four…

The idea of using digital technologies and in particular web 2.0 tools to enhance school collaboration has recently been received with great enthusiasm and a range of new collaborative initiatives has emerged. Through a comparative qualitative case study of four schools in the UK and Greece, this article analyses how online tools are supporting…

There are significant "lacunae" in the otherwise highly progressive documents on early school leaving prevention from the European Commission and Council in 2011, as part of the EU2020 headline target of 10% early school leavers across the EU. These documents offer no explicit account or analysis of the voices of children and young…

Whereas in 2000 the EU had heralded the knowledge-based society with as its motto "with more and better jobs and stronger social cohesion", the past decade has led to greater inequality and (at best) a status-quo in poverty. EU2020 seems to acknowledge this failure and aims to reconnect social inclusion with the knowledge-based strategy. This…

This article examines the emergence of the public university in Kenya as a key provider of private higher education, characterised mainly by the phenomenon of the "private public university student." It probes the broader socio-economic reforms circumscribing the privatisation of Kenya's public universities and the local and global forces…

In the last few decades, in the wake of three major crises in political faith and the overall instability that followed the end of the Cultural Revolution, the post-Mao Chinese government has sought to improve the lives of its citizens and to restore political legitimacy through rapid economic growth that has focused almost exclusively on GDP.…

This article describes the effects of participating in European Union Framework Programmes (EUFPs) at the level of research units and researchers. We consider EUFPs as policy instruments that contribute to the Europeanisation of academic research and study the changes they produce with respect to: 1) the organisation and activities of Departments,…