The policy cycle and vernacular globalization: a case study of the creation of Vietnam National University—Hochiminh City

This article examines the policy cycle and vernacular globalization in the context of higher education reform in Vietnam. Through an analysis of the development of the Vietnam National University—Hochiminh City as part of the post‐1986 reconstruction of Vietnamese higher education, the article considers the complex interrelationship between globalized policy discourses, national interests and history in Vietnam, and the specific politics of policy implementation within one institution. Vietnam National University—Hochiminh City was created through an amalgamation of a number of smaller universities, and against the backdrop of social and economic restructuring aimed at promoting industrialization and a market orientation within socialist governance. The article reveals the dynamic tension between these local and global influences on higher education policy and practice, and more specifically, the dilemmas associated with top‐down policy implementation when a new organization consists of older organizations with powerful provenance and reputations. In so doing the article demonstrates the necessity to globalize policy theory.     

The evolution of the student as a customer in Australian higher education: a policy perspective

In 2014, the Australian Federal Government attempted to de-regulate higher education fees so as to allow universities to set their own tuition fees. The associated public debate offer critical insights into how the identity of a student as a ‘customer’ of higher education is understood and deployed when developing higher education policy. This paper uses the 2014 Australian higher education reforms as a lens through which to further scholarly research into the student-as-customer metaphor and to see how it is influenced by the perceptions and understandings of policy actors external to the higher education sector. These include politicians, special interest groups, the students and their parents and prospective employers. This study reveals that the public/private nexus—both of funding and benefit—problematizes traditional conceptualisations of students and others as higher education customers. In turn, this restricts the ability or desire of policy actors to describe how the student functions as a customer as a consequence of market reform. This inability compromises the development of effective and sustainable higher education policy.     

A PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION PERSPECTIVE ON THE STUDY OF HIGHER EDUCATION

This article explores the relationship between higher education research and the study of public administration, the concpetual perspectives of which are useful for understanding the links between government policy‐making and higher education. A short introduction to the study of public administration is followed by the presentation of six newly evolved concepts of public administration which are labeled as follows: comprehensive rationality, the community action approach, the public choice approach, political systems theory, policy sciences, and contingency and inter‐organizational approaches. All of these have contributed to the eclecticism and the conceptual pluralism of the discipline of public administration as a whole. Having been adapted to the theoretical underpinnings of the administration of higher education, these six concepts have stimulated the development of four theoretical models for the analysis of decision‐making processes in higher education: the analytical or rational actor model, the garbage can or organized anarchy model, the collegiality model, and the political model. Specific problems in higher education administration have been addressed, as they have arisen, with reference to one or more of the six concepts and the four decision‐making models. For the future, the public administration approach to higher education will be most likely to draw upon the study of co‐ordination mechanisms in collective decision‐making processes and the comparative analysis of the external functions and performances of government.     

我国中小学学校发展规划研究进展综述

近年来,学校发展规划研究受到国内教育界的关注,取得了较多的研究成果。文章主要从学校发展规划的内涵界定、具体内容、制订的背景和意义、制订程序和实施等方面对现有研究成果进行综述,从而厘清研究脉络,分析研究中存在的问题,提出进一步研究的方向,以推动我国中小学学校发展规划研究的发展。     

New ways of being public: the experience of foundation degrees

This article explores the recent development of new spheres of public engagement within UK higher education through an analysis of the foundation degree qualification. These, according to the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE), were designed to equip students with the combination of technical skills, academic knowledge, and transferable skills increasingly being demanded by employers, and they have been identified as being at the forefront of educational agendas aimed at increasing employer engagement in the higher education (HE) sector. As such, they might be regarded as an expression of the ‘increasing privatisation’ of HE. However, this article argues that, on the contrary, they have enabled the development of new areas of public engagement relating to the design and delivery of courses as well as providing new opportunities for the pursuit of public policy goals such as widening participation. Such outcomes, it is argued, are the result of a number of factors that explain the ‘publicness’ of the qualification and that should be sustained to ensure the implementation of the 2006 Leitch Report in a manner that further develops public engagement.     

复杂性范式之于高等教育政策执行研究的认识论意蕴

复杂性范式之于高等教育政策执行研究,不仅打破了传统的简单性思维方式,而且为分析高等教育政策执行复杂性问题提供了一个以复杂性思维处理复杂性问题的方向。把复杂性理论引入到高等教育政策执行研究中,对高等教育政策执行研究的科学范式进行变革,消除自然科学和人文科学的隔阂,把握高等教育政策执行研究的科学的方法论,这将有利于我们对高等教育政策执行进行深层的思考。     

Implementing English Further/Higher Education Partnerships: the Street Level Perspective

This paper reports on research into the operation of English further/higher education, with a focus on the role of partnerships in supporting the massification of higher education. The research draws on the bottom‐up policy implementation tradition to provide analysis of the effects on partnerships of a quasi‐marketised environment. The rationale and effects of market orientated policy are discussed with reference to empirical data from college staff and partnership managers. In employing the concept of the ‘street‐level bureaucrat’ as an agent of policy implementation, this research contributes to the interpretation of policy and partnership which has previously been unexplored within the further/higher education context. Conclusions are drawn with implications for the development of college higher education delivered in partnership.     

高等教育政策执行中的第三部门——以福特基金会的PHE项目为例

针对国家助学贷款政策执行过程中的不足,福特基金会以项目参与的形式介入其中,并发挥了第三部门在公共服务提供中的特殊功能,但也显示出在现阶段我国高等教育领域中第三部门参与政策执行的限度。对福特基金会在参与国家助学贷款政策中的形式和实际功能的反思,对于我国教育领域中的第三部门,如各种协会、团体、基金组织,甚至是"半官半民"的事业单位作用的发挥有着重要的借鉴意义。     

Enhancing Part-time Teaching in Higher Education: a Challenge for Institutional Policy and Practice

Higher education in the UK has seen a steady increase in the numbers of part‐time teachers, yet the way in which they are inducted into teaching and the utilisation of their expertise are under‐researched. This qualitative study of 33 part‐time teachers from several universities suggests that their involvement in higher education should be considered from a fresh perspective, which differs from approaches to the enhancement of university teaching that rely upon simply educating individual teachers to do better by requiring their attendance at formally provided courses and events. While these approaches have their place, modern research on professional learning is increasingly pointing to the view that professional formation is an ecological process that is insufficiently served by the formal provision of learning opportunities. The ecological perspective, which emphasises the part played by the everyday workplace in professional formation, provides a challenge to leaders and managers regarding the development and implementation of institutional policy and practice.     

Mapping government reforms in quality against higher education theory: is the relationship symbiotic?

In Australia, a review of the higher education sector is usually triggered by a change in government leadership, followed by the development and implementation of the government’s response in the form of a reform package to enact change. The aim of this study was to conduct an independent evaluation of a large-scale national government policy implementation. This article concludes that the 2003 Government Reform Package was successful in bringing attention to learning and teaching practice in the Australian higher education sector through three national initiatives: (1) Learning and Teaching Performance Fund; (2) Australian Learning and Teaching Council; (3) Australian Universities Quality Agency. These initiatives were implemented with the full delivery of the initial funding cycle, each initiative applied a different model of quality and these models were found to be aligned to Bigg’s theoretical model of teaching and learning and to have a symbiotic relationship.     

The Creation of a Vocational Sector in Swiss Higher Education: balancing trends of system differentiation and integration

The article discusses the establishment of a vocational sector in Swiss higher education as a complement to the existing two‐tier system of cantonal Universities and federal Institutes of technology. The origins of this new player, its missions and organisational features are discussed. This overall discussion is placed into the context of changing landscape of Swiss higher education policy characterised by increasing pressures for geographical reorganisation of the higher education sector under the auspices of a more direct role of the federal government. The article makes two points. First, it argues that the creation of a vocational sector in Swiss higher education combines two contradictory trends. On the one hand, this new sector tends to provide differentiation at the system level, through the creation of a new, more marked‐oriented sector of higher education. On the other hand, system differentiation at the system level is threatened by increased demands for greater inter‐institutional cooperation and system integration, emanating principally from the federal level. Second, the article also argues that the distinction between ‘academic/scientific’ vs. ‘vocational/professional’ education generally referred to when studying the emergence of non‐university sectors in higher education, is not pertinent for the analysis of the Swiss case. Two reasons are brought forward to sustain this argument. First, this distinction reinforces an artificial binary divide, no longer relevant to assess the evolution of higher education institutions placed in a context of academic and vocational drifts. Second, the ‘academic’ vs. ‘professional’ opposition does not take into consideration the political organisation of the country and how this impacts on policy making in higher education; a crucial element in the Swiss context.     

‘Educare’ in Australia: analysing policy mobility and transformation

Abstract

Background: Early childhood education and care has been an area of significant policy attention, public investment and private market activity in Australia over the past three decades. Australian educationists and policy-makers have looked to international examples for evidence, policy design and institutional models. However, this area is under-researched in Australia, with regard to how these knowledge flows are theorised, and how policy is implemented on the ground.

Purpose: The paper’s purpose was to contribute new Australian-focussed conceptual and empirical insights on the trajectories, development and implementation of evidence-based policy in the field of early childhood education and care.

Sources of evidence: The paper is based on three main sources of evidence: ? the critical literature on policy transfer and policy mobility

? policy statements, reports and planning documents produced by national- and state-level governments

? data from fieldwork analysis of new capital works and programmes in the early childhood field.

Main argument: International research and evidence on the benefits of investment in early learning has had a significant impact on the framing of Australian policy. So too has a move in several countries to align early childhood institutions with schools. However, a dominant paradigm of policy transfer, reliant on pluralist and rationalist frameworks of policy-making, fails to account for the dynamics of policy development and implementation across and within jurisdictions and geographical space. Conceptualising a new alignment in Australia between children’s centres and schools as ‘educare’, this article employs the theoretical lens of policy mobility to account for the circulation and transformation of educare policy in Australian settings. Through an empirical analysis of a new educare centre in the growth corridor of western Melbourne, the article demonstrates the extent to which neoliberal policy settings outside the educational sphere, around public finance, partnership, place and infrastructure provision, influence the implementation of ‘educare’ policy.

Conclusions: The educare discourse in Australia addresses a complex and multiscalar set of policy problems that associate child development with concerns around human capital formation, economic efficiency and productivity, place making and community building, and the role of the public sector in neoliberal democracies. International circuits of knowledge, policy design and institutional models in the educare field have been significant in shaping recent Australian policy, despite well-publicised views expressed in Australia on the disconnection between academic research and policy. The strength of policy mobility as a theoretical lens to assist our understanding of these influences lies in its critique of formalism in policy-making and in its attention to fluidity and transformation. The mobility lens encourages new empirical research that focuses on spatial and institutional dynamics, assisting our reading of on-the-ground developments in Australia’s fastest growing city.     

高职院校混合所有制办学的探索与反思

高职院校混合所有制办学是深化产教融合、校企合作的重要途径,是激发职业教育办学活力的应然之举。混合所有制经济形式在职业教育领域的迁移和创新,有助于高职院校校企合作朝着多方位、长期性、校企互动的良好态势转变。当前高职院校混合所有制办学面临观念滞后、政策缺位、理论研究薄弱等现实困境,需要加强顶层设计,给予政策保障;做好舆论导向,营造良好氛围;加强理论研究,指导改革实践;发挥典型作用,积极示范引领。     

Skill Formation and Utilisation in the Post‐Soviet Transition: Higher Education Planning in Post‐Soviet Georgia

Changes in the former Soviet system had a dramatic influence on higher education in Georgia. The main objective of the current article is to analyse implications of the post‐Soviet transition for the skill formation and skill utilisation system in Georgia. In particular, the study analyses recent trends in Georgian higher education including privatisation and economic liberalisation. The discussion builds upon theories of transition and relevance of skill formation theories to the post‐Soviet transition. The article argues that increasing competition among public universities and newly emerged private universities has not improved the quality of higher education provision. On the contrary, it has contributed to an imbalance between the labour market's demand for skills and awarded qualifications, a mismatch and irrelevance of skills and high unemployment rates among university graduates. The article demonstrates that economic approaches in the transition context could not explain the complex logic between the skill formation and skill utilisation mechanisms. It further concludes that the discrepancies between the skill formation and skill utilisation systems had a negative impact upon skill modernisation in Georgia.     

Postsecondary policy and management in the Far East: a comparative study

Over the past decade, there has been a revolution in policy, planning and management practices in higher education in the developed world. The decline in the traditional college-age population and the stressful fiscal conditions of the late 1970s and early 1980s, after over two decades of growth, were catalysts for new approaches to public policy and institutional management. There has also been increased research on the effectiveness of policy and management methodologies in the West. This paper explores the applicability of contemporary western policy and management methodologies to the technical sector of postsecondary education in three Far Eastern countries: Pakistan, Bangladesh and the Philippines. Case studies are analyzed to explore the applicability of these methodologies to the developing world. The major finding is that, because of new conditions facing higher education in these countries, contemporary approaches to policy and management are applicable. However, specific methodologies require adaptation to accommodate the political, institutional and cultural environments in these settings.An earlier version of this paper was presented at American Education Research Association, 1986 Annual Meeting.     

The sociology of Pierre Bourdieu and researching education policy

Bourdieu did not write anything explicitly about education policy. Despite this neglect, we agree with van Zanten that his theoretical concepts and methodological approaches can contribute to researching and understanding education policy in the context of globalisation and the economising of it. In applying Bourdieu’s theory and methodology to research in education policy, we focus on developing his work to understand what we call ‘cross‐field effects’ and for exploring the emergence of a ‘global education policy field’. These concepts are derived from some of our recent research concerning globalisation and mediatisation of education policy. The paper considers three separate issues. The first deals with Bourdieu’s primary ‘thinking tools’, namely practice, habitus, capitals and fields and their application to policy studies. The second and third sections consider two additions to Bourdieu’s thinking tools, as a way to reconceptualise the functioning of policy if considered as a social field. More specifically, the second section develops an argument around cross‐field effects, as a way to group together, research and describe policy effects. The third section develops an argument about an emergent global education policy field, and considers ways that such a field affects national education policy fields.     

Research Managers Uncovered: Changing Roles and 'Shifting Arenas' in the Academy

This paper draws on findings from a study that explored the changing roles and career experience of research managers and research administrators in English universities. It explores how research support has evolved during a period when the higher education sector was responding to changing science and higher education policy. These changes have impacted on research managers and research administrators roles, altered the occupational group and moved field boundaries. The paper draws on Bourdieu's theory of social practice to understand these changes and identifies a shared space of tension, the 'shifting arena,' where the research manager field crosses into the academic field. It is suggested that an increased understanding of this space will enhance the collaborative working of all those involved in research and help maximise research activity.     

The role of mass media in education policies: a Chinese case study

The role of mass media in education policy processes is increasingly complex, but research on its contribution is far from adequate. This study uses the higher education quality assurance policies issued in China at the beginning of this century to explore the roles played by mass media in the creation and implementation of education policies. Mass media’s current influence on Chinese education policies mainly includes promoting policy agenda setting, enhancing policy legitimacy and monitoring the process of policy implementation. However, its role in constructing a platform for public discussion and improving policy design needs to be strengthened.     

我国农村民办教育发展的政治逻辑-基于北方某县的调查

农村县政府对于公立教育和民办教育是不偏不倚还是持重此轻彼的态度?本文通过对我国北方某县的实地调查,发现体制性因素使县政府总体上偏向公立教育发展,但是体制性限制所留下的"缝隙"恰好成为民办教育发展的契机。当民办教育处于萌芽阶段,其发展水平不影响政府的政绩,政府对民办教育采取了放任自流的政策;当民办教育通过自发形式发展到一定水平,特别是能够有利于实现政府制定的教育目标、提升政府政绩表现时,政府会对其办学行为进行鼓励和支持。该个案调研和经济学研究理论启发我们,可以将竞争作为分析我国农村教育问题的一个新视角。