Short-cycle higher education programs (SCPs) can play a central role in skill development and higher education expansion, yet their quality varies greatly within and among countries. In this paper we explore the relationship between programs' practices and inputs (quality determinants) and student academic and labor market outcomes. We design and…

Governments recognize that workers in the twenty-first century need to keep pace with increasingly technical employment environments in order to remain competitive in the global market. The Australian government has developed a set of policies to address impending shortfalls in high-level technicians and paraprofessionals across many professions.…

Since 2006, the Netherlands has been actively engaged in a process of developing, piloting, and institutionalizing a new 2-year, short-cycle higher education degree, titled the "associate degree". This initiative evolved as a collaborative grassroots effort spearheaded by several Dutch national higher education and business organizations…

This chapter traces the history, purposes, and distinctive features of the foundation degree, a short-cycle higher education qualification introduced in England in 2000-2001 and offered by both universities and further education colleges. The key characteristics of the foundation degree are discussed: employer involvement in curriculum development…

The Foundation degree was launched in 2001 and has enjoyed growth but remains a controversial qualification. Foundation Degree Forward, the body charged by the UK government with providing a "national network or expertise to support the development and validation of high-quality Foundation degrees" is championing the marketing of the…

This document describes two- and three-year colleges in Korea, which produce middle-level technicians equipped with a solid base in both theory and practical skills. The colleges' goals are: (1) to contribute to national development by producing leading technicians to industries; (2) to realize the idea of lifelong education through a variety of…

Information concerning international education activities at 15 Southeast Florida colleges and universities is presented. Twelve of the schools are members of the Southeast Florida Educational Consortium. A questionnaire was administered in 1982-1983 to determine foreign student presence, academic programs, contracts and grants, and administrative…

The private internal rate of return to investment is evaluated in two levels in each of the following four educational programs: computer science, nursing, nutrition, and social work. In these fields, a situation occurs in which many bachelor's degree graduates and community college vocational degree holders perform exactly the same work and…