All are equal,but some are more equal than others: managerialism and gender equality in higher education in comparative perspective

The main purpose of this paper is to investigate what impact new regimes of management and governance, including new managerialism, have had on perceptions of gender equality at universities in three Western European countries. While in accordance with national laws and EU directives, contemporary current management approaches in universities should, in theory, stimulate equality of opportunities and diminish regimes of inequality, our findings from qualitative interviews across the Netherlands, Sweden and the UK provide a very different picture. Our data show that these new governance approaches actually re-emphasise the existing status quo in various ways and enable more subtle forms of discrimination despite the existence of a veneer of equality. Consequently, some women find themselves sidelined by the gap between formal procedures designed to deal with inequalities and the institutional cultures and practices towards selection and promotion.     

“How to Strike the Right Balance Between Quality Assurance and Quality Control in the Perceptions of Individual Lecturers”: A comparison of UK and Dutch higher education institutions

Tertiary Education and Management - This paper focuses on the way lecturers observe, feel restrained by and cope with quality management systems that have been implemented in the higher education...     

Market Mechanisms in Education: School choice in The Netherlands,England and Scotland in a comparative perspective

This article analyses differences in the availability of school choice in The Netherlands, England and Scotland. A 10 variable model is used to determine that the increased availability of choice leads generally to an increased presence of the market mechanism in the three countries. However, the functioning of the market is most obvious in The Netherlands, to a lesser extent in England and even less in Scotland.     

Managerialism, Organizational Commitment, and Quality of Job Performances among European University Employees

To achieve efficient and effective quality improvement, European universities have gradually adopted organizational strategies, structures, technologies, management instruments, and values that are commonly found in the private business sector. Whereas some studies have shown that such managerialism is beneficial to the quality of job performances of university employees, others have argued that managerialism is largely counterproductive and that it results in lower performances. The latter situation is called a ‘managerialism contradiction’. This paper tests two lines of reasoning underlying a potential contradiction governing the relationship between managerialism and job performances, while using university employee survey data from six European countries (Belgium, Finland, Germany, Netherlands, Sweden, UK). The results tend to support the assumption that managerialism, in these six countries at least, has a positive effect, albeit a modest one, on the quality of performances. The most important conclusion is therefore that there is no managerialism contradiction at work in European universities.     

Frictions Between Formal Education Policy and Actual School Choice: Case Studies in an International Comparative Perspective

This contribution is based on comparative case studies of secondary schools in England, the Netherlands and Scotland. The authors conclude that although opportunities for school choice are offered in a formal sense in each of the locations studied, in certain cases choice is not particularly encouraged. In order to explain this disparity between formal education policy and actual school choice, they identified seven areas of friction which determine school choice. This approach allowed a more detailed and accurate view of the operation of school choice on a local, day-to-day basis. Active or passive discouragement of choice became apparent in factors such as availability of transport and information; bureaucratic procedures; strictly enforced admission criteria; and lack of educational diversity.