The policy object: a different perspective on policy enactment in higher education

This paper proposes a new perspective for higher education policy research. It introduces the concept of policy object to designate the discrete preoccupation(s) of a policy text (e.g. a new governance regime, a quality system, or new degrees) and suggests that actor conceptualisations of the policy object intersect with other elements in the policy process to shape enactment and outcomes. First, the policy object concept is described. It is argued that the policy object does not have an objective existence and two concepts are proposed to explain it: ontology and enacted ontology. The former refers to what actors believe the policy object is, a socially-construed context-determined conceptualisation, whereas enacted ontology refers to what the policy object becomes further to enactment under the influence of ontology. Second, the paper presents the findings of a comparative study of master degrees further to the Bologna process in different national and institutional settings to illustrate the policy object approach. This research puts forward arguments to suggest that the policy object could be an important variable to consider in policy research. This somewhat different lens, inviting fine-grained attention to a specific policy object (its ontologies and enacted ontologies), could bring additional insight into policy outcomes.     

高校扩招对高等教育质量的影响

高等教育质量是高等教育发展的生命线，我国高校扩招对教育目标，办学条件，教育制度，教学过程都产生了巨大的冲击和影响。     

Age as a merit in admission decisions for higher education

Higher Education - This paper uses register data to study how a particular age reward feature affects admission into two highly competitive study programs: medicine and law. The Norwegian admission...     

从结构性约束看大众化阶段我国高等教育公共政策的选择

随着高等教育大众化阶段的来临,我国财政性教育经费和高等教育成本补偿政策均面临着诸多的结构性约束问题。为妥善处理好这些问题,促进我国高等教育的健康发展,应完善我国高等教育的公共政策选择。即强化政府财政责任,确保法定经费足额到位;弥补市场失灵,完善国家助学贷款体系;健全捐赠税收优惠政策,拓宽多元化融资渠道;允许民办高校合法营利,强化民办高校的分类监管。     

高等教育发展趋势与政策分析

近几年是我国高等教育发展最好的历史时期,是发展思路非常清楚的时期,同时也是争议颇多的时期。目前,我国高等教育面临的长期国情是:穷国办大教育、经济发展不平衡、望子成龙愿望、以发展促问题解决;新的挑战为:大众化新平台、全面建设小康社会、经济全球化大趋势、城镇化发展;新的理念有:可持续发展、和谐社会、创新型国家、终身学习。为此,我国高等教育的进一步发展必须坚持学校的多样化分类发展与特色定位,这是教育教学的根本要求;需要促进现代大学制度建设,这是高等学校内部管理保障的要求;需要加强评估对拨款的影响,这是高等学校外部的保证要求;还要引导高等学校的区域扩展,这是全面建设小康社会的教育需要。     

PPBS in higher education planning and management: Part III,perspectives and applications of policy analysis

This is the concluding part of a three-part series on Planning, Program, Budgeting Systems (PPBS) in higher education planning and management. After the experiences of the University of California with PPBS, which we reviewed in Part II, and the subsequent lack of success of PPBS in non-defense applications, we believe a more carefully focused policy analysis approach to be more fruitful. In this paper we describe the nature, foci, and analytical base for policy analysis and present a case study of policy analysis applied to the decision of year-round operations for the University of California. Finally, we give some concluding comments and observations.Parts I and II have previously appeared in Higher Education (1972), vol. 1, nos. 2 and 3.