Technology transfer managers are a new group of specialist professionals engaged in facilitating transfer of university research discoveries and inventions to business firms and other research users. With relatively high academic qualifications and enjoying higher salaries than many other comparable university staff, technology transfer managers…

The paper presents a first assessment of the effects of changes in the Norwegian student support system, implemented in 2002-2003. Data have been drawn from NSELF, the Norwegian State Educational Loan Fund and from "Statistics Norway" (various years). Covering the period 2001-04, the data compare the number and composition of those receiving…

Governments now expect universities to behave entrepreneurially generating revenues from the commercial exploitation of their intellectual assets ("third stream" income). This study questions whether this is possible for all universities in the UK and for all disciplines, or whether there are differences between institutions, between disciplines…

The results of an in-depth study into the university systems of the main countries of the European Union are presented in this paper. The objective is to define theoretical models of the market forms of university education and to apply them in a comparative international study. The analysis shows a general tendency to organise these systems…

When publications are used in the evaluation of research performance, tensions between the simplifying, standardizing approaches of evaluations and the communication practices of scientific communities are likely to arise. An analysis of data gathered in an evaluation at the Australian National University demonstrates that many academic…

This paper explores the implications of government funding for postgraduate research in English universities. Specifically, it focuses upon the funding model introduced recently by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE). The suggestion in the paper is that the operation of this model will seriously disadvantage certain parts of…

The article interprets a particular set of debates on whether quality assurance in South African higher education widens democracy or not. The interpretation explores the extent to which higher education quality assurance fulfils three conditions posited for democracy (inclusion, participation and enhancement), drawing in as points of reference…

This article first reviews claims for the knowledge economy in terms of excludability, rivalry, and transparency indicating the way that digital goods behave differently from other commodities. In the second section it discusses the theory of "public knowledge cultures" starting from the primacy of practice based on Marx, Wittgenstein and…

This article represents a consideration of the proposal by Michael Peters that peer review should be democratically extended. It begins by tracing the struggle between the natural sciences (the Quadrivium) and the humanities (the Trivium) in the medieval university to the present day, concluding that the Quadrivium has established a decisive…

This article provides a critical discussion of the neoliberal reforms of higher education focusing on new managerialism and New Public Management. It also distinguishes between democratic and market accountability regimes, examining how the former arise from classical liberalism and the latter from neoliberalism. The article then examines…

This essay addresses the question, "What is quality in higher education?" In so doing it raises many interesting and vexing questions in relation to education. For example, is "quality" in higher education the same as, for example, "quality" with reference to the quality of clothing or the quality of meat in local butcheries? Furthermore, is it…

Value for money as one of the principles of quality assurance in education has often been perceived and significantly misconstrued as placing emphasis on financial efficiency. This mechanistic view of "value for money" in South Africa has been given impetus by what Melck (2001) calls managerial practices and what Cele and Menon (2006) call a…

The current implementation phase of quality assurance in higher education has ushered in a range of debates and ideas. In response to a recent presentation on the topic, this article provides a glimpse into some of the conditions that lend themselves to the emergence of external quality assurance agencies. A key element nationally, resonating with…

Quality assurance (QA) has gained momentum in South African higher education with national reviews of MBA, MEd, PGECE, BEd and ACE programmes. This article presents an overview of global trends in QA, and comments on some aspects particular to the South African national framework. It explores how the concepts of democracy, knowledge, and social…

The article addresses the concept of quality assurance (QA) and its relation to quality in higher education which itself is a component of total quality management. It then examines the regulatory policies for higher education followed by the meaning of the concept of democracy in the South African Constitution and its impact and implications on…