This article first draws together a range of published statistics to analyse trends in participation in higher education in the UK over recent years. That provides evidence of the shifting profile in the student population and sets a context for examining emerging evidence of the impact of recent government policy decisions on control of student…

This essay is a contribution to the literature of critique of higher education policy and management. It offers a general discussion of problems arising from the proliferation of mechanisms of audit and quality assurance within the context of concerns about dependence on quantitative measures of values. It argues that uncritical dependence on…

This article proposes an applied theoretical framework that could assist education reformers in Confucian heritage culture (CHC) countries to adopt Western-developed learning practices successfully. This framework is needed because the literature has recently documented a large number of failures in educational reforms at CHC colleges. The main…

In the UK, and in many other countries, policy makers and funding bodies emphasise the importance of the STEM disciplines (science, technology, engineering and mathematics), as opposed to the HASS disciplines (humanities, arts and social sciences), in higher education. Yet an examination of the biographies of UK members of parliament (MPs)…

Recent interest in the number of complaints being raised by students in higher education may be attributed both to a general concern about quality and standards in universities and to the emerging role of the student as a "consumer". However, partly because of the highly sensitive nature of this topic, for students, staff and institutions, very…

This article does not follow the widespread assumption or even conviction that the Bologna process is the most important reform of higher education in Europe in modern times. Instead it analyses the Bologna process in the context of previous and ongoing programmes, measures and activities by European bodies and national governments aiming at…

There is a presumption among many policy makers that higher education is not necessary for economic growth and development; it is literacy and basic education and at best secondary education that are argued to be important. Estimates of internal rate of return contributed to strengthening of such a presumption. Accordingly, higher education has…

The doctrine of university autonomy in the UK contains a least two major "fault-lines" where the structure is inherently weak and there is danger of functional breakdown. The first occurs at the junction between the institution and the state, the second within the institution, where the unity in policy-making between academic and…

Hungary's higher education system has been going through a gradual shift from an elite to a mass system: enrolment has surged in recent decades. There is growing pressure on financing, with rising costs, limited public funding and an increasing student population. In parallel, there is a growing recognition that an important part of the benefits…

The intention to introduce a form of post qualification application (PQA) for entry to UK universities has provoked considerable interest, debate and controversy, not least over its impact on diversifying the intake of undergraduates gaining entry to the allegedly most prestigious universities and courses. We review the arguments and evidence…

The paper examines the issue of educational pathways, including a brief overview of the higher education regulatory framework and market forces in Australia, particularly as recent policy reforms and political aspirations affect them. It highlights the key challenges and outlines a potential model for integrating vocational and higher educational…

In this article the author, until recently Vice-Chancellor of Southampton Solent University, draws on his long experience of higher education policymaking to suggest how policies for higher education can be improved. His recommendations cover the structure of policymaking, with a reduced role for the Funding Councils and a more effective role for…

This article uses data from a series of reports by the Longer Term Strategy Group of Universities UK to outline key features of the developing market for higher education in the UK. The resulting empirical lessons about the behaviour of students and institutions are tested against the political drive for a freer domestic "market" for student…

In 1983, Burton Clark published a study that was to become a classic work on the organisation and government of higher education systems (Clark 1983). He constructed three "ideal types" of system--state system, market system and professional system, and summarised the way that national systems of higher education are dependent on the forms of…

The Lambert Review of Business-University Collaboration proposed a business model for universities in 2003. Pressure to change university governance to make it match the business model remains strong, and it is being most actively applied to Oxford and Cambridge. The Oxford and Cambridge governance debates (which began in the 1990s) open up the…