In the area of education and training, different configurations of government with different institutional structures may produce similar or quite different educational and employment outcomes. Other factors come into play in assessing outcomes. For example, young people's transitions from education to work are shaped by a variety of structural…

Education in Brussels is provided by four sectors: the state, the province, the communes, and the Catholic or "free" (independent) schools. The thorniest problem faced by secondary education is the presence of the immigrant population. (MLW)

This paper contends that former Eastern bloc countries, which have rejected centralized, authoritarian political systems, are emulating a United Kingdom school development model which itself is authoritarian, centralized, and coercive. The paper characterizes that authoritarianism and suggests an alternative educational model of centralized…

Reviews development of evaluation studies together with key epistemological and conceptual issues. Uses identified concepts to analyze peer review, the traditional mode of evaluation in higher education institutions in the United Kingdom and other European countries. Lists criteria for improvement, including: range of knowledge; critical analysis…

It is proposed that changes in interuniversity cooperation in the Netherlands are a reflection of changes in university management and governance, which in turn are a reflection of changes in the political culture of the country, especially in the attitude of the central government toward the universities. (MSE)

Many of our models of the university espouse a monolithic concept of autonomy. The Kantian model, based on specific realms of state intervention and nonintervention, should be explored more thoroughly because it allows for intervention while maintaining some notion of autonomy. (Author/MSE)

Three articles on key issues in distance education, particularly in Europe, focus on different perspectives of distance education planning: an academic viewpoint (Borje Holmberg), an industrial viewpoint (Francesco Musto), and a government viewpoint, or approaches by the European Commission and member states (Nicholas Fox). (MSE)

Assesses the "evaluative state"--the historic background, the process and procedures used to evaluate institutions of public higher education in European Union countries. Reviews various types of evaluation used, changes in the concept and purpose of evaluation, and looks at some of the basic and long-term issues for the future, from its…

European higher education policies that were first developed as an empirical, short-term response to financial difficulties at the start of the decade have now assumed a long-term strategic character that affects the relationships between government and higher education and between society and higher education. (MSE)

Recent changes in Finnish higher education are characterized by increased political trust and a desire to give the system a more important social role, by increasing direct public accountability through institutional evaluation and encouraging internal leadership and academic self-regulation. The changes will require more advanced institutional…

The conceptual relationship of science policy and educational policy is examined and charted, and various models of this relationship are categorized. Policy goals are considered: national prestige, economic modernization, stabilization of economic development, socioecology, education consumer-hedonism, and external scientific development. (MSE)

An official British white paper and a law creating broad reforms in higher education reflect the government's acceptance and promotion of the ideology of privatization and are part of a policy trend affecting all levels of the educational system. (MSE)

The historical and present relationship of church and state in Irish education and the educational policies of the churches and the responses of the political system are examined. Some policy issues are analyzed to illustrate the educational policy process and the place of churches in it. (MSE)

Britain's conscious efforts to maintain traditional university autonomy and minimize state intervention are outlined and the special characteristics of this form of autonomy are noted. Whether or not this approach has been successful is discussed. (MSE)

The issues of academic freedom, institutional autonomy, government involvement in higher education, and students' part in the power structure are analyzed for several European countries. Recent influences, political and economic, are reviewed. (MSE)