Since gaining independence, Ukraine has recognised the need to reform its vocational education and training (VET) system to better align with new economic realities. This necessity was largely driven by the country's increasing openness to the world and its desire to integrate with the European Union, which became especially pronounced after the…

Worldwide, there is a pressing need for nations to seriously enhance the international dimension in higher education through international cooperation to stay competitive in a globalised higher education system. The Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) is an inter-governmental organisation formed in 1996. Since then, it has been actively involved in higher…

As more regions seek to attract international organisations (IOs) to improve their lack of voice in the global community, researchers have increasingly examined the factors that influence the IO location decisions. While these studies inform policy development, most focus on external factors such as international relations, with limited attention…

In the concept of "inclusive education," the adjective "inclusive" stands for a universal vision for education for all students. It stands for the mobilisation of various resources in the field of education, for achieving UNESCO's "Education For All" agenda. Inclusive education aims to combat discrimination and give…

The author describes the results of PISA, including those of 2015 and Japan's reaction, as well as their impact. Highly-ranked in PISA, Japan has always tried to improve its education system. The promotion of reading comprehension remains an important issue and low interest and motivation to learn subjects are crucial problems. The author…

Two education reports commissioned by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), Learning to be, otherwise known as the "Faure report" (1972) and "Learning: The treasure within," otherwise known as the "Delors report" (1996), have been associated with the establishment of lifelong…

As the field of education has become a highly internationalised policy field in the last decade, international organisations such as the OECD play an ever more decisive role in the dissemination of knowledge, monitoring of outcomes, and research in education policy. Although the OECD lacks any binding governance instruments to put coercion on…

This article provides a literature review on the effects of the OECD's Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) on education governance and policy process across participating countries. This review seemed necessary because there has been a growing body of literature on this topic since 2003, especially since 2010, because this…

Using the PISA 2015 releases in Norway and England, this article explores how PISA has been presented in the media and how the policy level has responded to the results. England will be used as an example for comparison. The article presents early media responses from the 20 most circulated daily newspapers in the two countries and discusses them…

In this article, the work of three international governmental organisations (IGOs) dealing with human rights will be discussed, namely the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the Council of Europe (CoE). In the first section, the main characteristics of the…

This article draws on the discourses of educational policy in Europe to focus on the implications of the Bologna Process for higher education in Russia. The Bologna Process, as a multi-dimensional discourse involving a variety of social actors, reflects some of the complexities and contradictions of globalisation, in many local cases evoking…

This article provides an overview of education cooperation in Europe seen though some of the major initiatives of international organizations (IOs) active in this field. The purpose of the article is two-fold: (i) mapping out IOs' most significant programmes according to their objectives and modes of cooperation as a pre-requisite to understand…

The entry of China in the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2001 holds a number of promises for educational services. The purpose of this article is to explore both the direct and the indirect influence of China's entry into WTO on its education system. The direct influence mainly refers to the increase in the demand for education overseas and in…

This article presents an argued case for making sustainable development a policy obligation for the European Training Foundation (ETF) and for vocational education and training (VET) reform in the partner countries that are served by ETF. In relation to ETF it points out that no major emphasis has been put to date on combining economic, social and…

This article takes up the issue of the internationalisation of Vocational Education and Training (VET) reforms, expressed in the way policy instruments such as National Qualifications Frameworks (NQF) are introduced in the European Training Foundation's (ETF) partner countries. There is an international debate and different perspectives regarding…