This good practice guide is intended to assist public and private registered training organisations (RTOs) planning to commence higher education (HE) delivery. The guide is based on research undertaken by Victor Callan and Kaye Bowman, who completed case studies with six providers currently delivering higher education qualifications in addition to…

Universities are increasingly dependent on information technology (IT) to support delivery of their objectives. It is crucial, therefore, that the IT investments made lead to successful outcomes. This study analyses the governance structures and decision-making processes used to approve and prioritise IT projects. Factors influencing an…

This article draws on the multi-theoretical approach to governance and a qualitative research method to examine the extent to which the corporate approach is practised in Australian public universities. The findings reveal that in meeting the needs of multiple stakeholders, universities are faced with a number of structural, legalistic, and…

"New" school inspections are essential parts of "evidence-based governance" concepts and have been implemented by many European countries as a major strategy to assure and improve the effectiveness and quality of their education systems. However, national inspection systems vary in their composition and in their contextual…

The 2010 Academies Act was significant in introducing Free Schools to the English education system. Opening up funding to new, non-profit entrants on the basis of demand, the policy has aroused support and controversy on political, philosophical and practical educational grounds with implications for social justice in terms of equity and freedom.…

The recent growth in the number of registered vocational education and training (VET) providers delivering associate degrees and bachelor degrees in their own right has been well publicized. However, little is known about why these VET providers have made this transition, what support is being provided to their staff and students, and how the…

The paper examines the extent to which sub-national public officials are efficient in delivering basic education services and argues that technical inefficiencies, especially in the management of public funds for education, could potentially contribute to poor education service delivery in South Africa. A conceptual framework is proposed to show…

This report is focused on the strategic, capability and operational reasons why traditional vocational education and training (VET) providers move to the delivery of higher education qualifications in their own right, in addition to their vocational qualifications. It is particularly interested in associate and bachelor degrees. By undertaking six…

The education sector especially higher education in Nigeria faces financial challenges. The recurrent cost of university education constitutes about 95% of the total cost incurred by the government in Nigeria. However, the Nigerian government is unable to meet the UNESCO recommendation that 26% of national budgets should be allocated to education.…

The question of the manner in which universities have organised themselves to embed the "quality" agenda in Scotland is addressed in this paper by considering whether the seemingly different structures generated are in fact sophisticated and efficient forms of resource allocation, or organic and emergent structures with only local…

We employ Data Envelopment Analysis to compute the technical efficiency of Italian and English higher education institutions. Our results show that, in relation to the country-specific frontier, institutions in both countries are typically very efficient. However, institutions in England are more efficient than those in Italy when we compare…

In the UK fully qualified status in professional occupations is normally awarded by a professional association or registration body. Both the requirements and the routes for qualifying vary between professions, although the majority include an academic component combined with or followed by a period of assessed practice. In recent years there have…

The main objective of the paper is to explore supply chain management practices in the Central District Municipality, North West province of South Africa, using the grounded theory methodology. Supply chain management was introduced in the South African public sector to alleviate deficiencies related to governance, interpretation and…

The dominant metaphor/model used to characterise the relationship of the student to the university, that is, the "student as consumer", is partial and not appropriate to the realities of contemporary higher education. This article suggests that co-production, a concept drawn from the public administration literature, offers a more…

In this article, the authors offer the University of Brighton's Community-University Partnership Programme (CUPP) Helpdesk as a model of an "enabling platform" for university-community engagement. Despite the growth of practical and scholarly activity in this area, there is a relative lack of research focused on the processes by which…