The goal of this work is to better understand the institutional changes in the educational systems of the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia. We demonstrate that the educational reforms implemented during the transformation introduced very different institutional arrangements in the four countries, despite the fact that their systems…

The purpose of this study is to identify how the meaning of autonomy and accountability changes between domestic and overseas campuses of the universities in New York State. The article confines to and examines the shift of the quality assurance mechanism between two contexts. The article argues that home campuses of the University of the State of…

Alongside debates concerning managerialism, marketisation and performativity, the question of accountability in higher education has come to the fore in recent commentary. Discussion of the subject has tended to be divided into two distinct camps. On the one hand, there are strong calls for more accountability to the public purse--a desire to…

This paper examines the translation of global educational norms of quality assurance in two countries with very different regulatory regimes in higher education: Chile and South Africa. The translation process is conceptualised here as a contested socio-political process of appropriation and creation of meaning. Drawing upon the…

With most school districts all over the country scrambling to cover educational funding shortfalls and increasing class sizes, at least one state governor is publicly questioning why all school districts don't contract custodial services. School district administrators are facing the increasing budget cuts pressure to consider (or reconsider)…

Further education (FE) colleges in England were statutorily "cut free" from local education authority (LEA) control in 1992. This article, however, primarily considers changes within FE in the 30 years before this "incorporation" of FE colleges, as well as debates that followed. It argues that the post-1992 changes were…

Authorizers are as varied as the schools they oversee. Some are responsible for just one charter, while others monitor hundreds of charters serving tens of thousands of students. Some are school districts, while others are independent statewide boards, universities, not-for-profits, or state education agencies. Regardless of their size and type,…

The main argument in Loyiso Jita's article is that although both law and convention have established stakeholder participation in higher education quality assurance, it lacks conceptual clarity. The article bravely attempts to develop a theory of "stakeholder identification and salience" by drawing mainly on business and organisational…

Over the past fifteen years the rationale, organisational infrastructure and delivery of social policy in Britain have undergone radical transformation. Whereas efficiency was the key word of the 1980s, quality was the touchstone of the 1990s and quality control with accountability has become the management philosophy of the new millennium.…

This policy brief reviews developments in standards-based reform and explores new ways for holding schools and districts accountable for discharging their missions. It draws on several Consortium for Policy Research in Education (CPRE) studies of accountability, many of which are still in progress. The report examines characteristics of new…

A research project examined what form of organizational structures have been adopted within British further-education colleges 5 years after their incorporation and removal from local-education authority control. Colleges are representing their structures as market models (alongside a clan culture), rather than Weberian bureaucracies. (Contains 29…

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…

Evaluating schools has become a contentious issue in many countries. There seems to be a broad and growing consensus that some form of evaluation can on the one hand play a significant role in school improvement efforts, and on the other is also required to provide a reasonable level of public accountability appropriate in democratic societies.…

Colleges and universities interact with multiple constituents or quality monitoring groups that require programme-level assessment of student learning. These required assessments might be used to demonstrate accountability, programme improvement or a combination of both. These demands often challenge instructional faculty to choose between the…

Draws on international research, policy, and practice relevant to quality assurance systems to analyze the development of a national framework for educational quality assurance in South Africa. Describes an emerging framework for quality assurance that encompasses evaluation of student achievement, quality audits and reviews, program and service…