Internationally, demands for greater certainty over the quality of higher education are multiplying. This article argues that convention theory offers insights for considering quality in higher education in an increasingly market-based system. Examples from the Australian higher education system are used to show how quality conventions can be…

The article considers the importance of examining how members of university governing bodies understand and perform their roles in the politically complex context of contemporary higher education. While a growing body of scholarly literature is devoted to the study of university governance, much of this work neglects the human aspects of…

National policy agendas for quality assurance in higher education (HE) are increasingly influenced by supra-national trends and decisions. Taking Spain, Switzerland and The Netherlands as examples, the paper analyses how supranational trends are re-interpreted at the national level and how recently formulated national policies combine the demands…

Higher education is in flux as governments around the world seek to use it as an instrument to enhance national economies, and the half-life of knowledge steadily decreases. Lifelong learning is presented as critically important to the development of human capital, but its implications for first-cycle higher education have yet to be fully…

Discussion of internationalization in higher education in Europe finds that although the major forces are still predominantly national, the internationalization process impacts individual institutions through growing pressures for diversity, increasing popularity of managerialism, and compliance with policies of the European Commission, which seem…

Suggests that organizational effectiveness research has made considerable progress in empirically deriving a systematic framework of theoretical and practical utility in Australian higher education. Offers a taxonomy based on the competing values framework and discusses use of inter-organizational comparisons and profiles for diagnosis in…

Examines the phenomenon of mergers in higher education in Australia, the United States, and Western Europe in terms of: (1) governance, management, and administration; (2) economics; and (3) academic activities. Finds similarities related to structural-cultural factors, process orientation, and economic factors. (DB)

Argues that governmental pressures on universities force change that can have positive effects on the institution's teaching function when guidelines based on sociological systems theory are followed. Offers as a successful example the Enterprise in Higher Education Initiative in the United Kingdom which focused on curricular change, and as an…

Examines three recently established entrpreneurial organizations delivering distance education: (1) the University of Michigan's Academic Outreach Program; (2) the University Center at Northwestern Michigan College; and (3) the Michigan Virtual Automotive College. Argues for the emergence of a postsecondary knowledge industry in which new forces…