In the field of international education and development, International Language and Culture Promotion Organisations (ILCPOs) have played an important part for more than a century. More than 40 countries and regions have set up such organisations. Despite the diversity of these ILCPOs, few comparative studies have been conducted to examine their…

In this paper, we analyse the trajectory of the French testing policy in education since 1973. Regarding its statistical tradition and its ability to produce its own evaluation tool, France may be regarded as an interesting case to interrogate the capacity of national educational systems to meet international standards of testing. Anchored in a…

In a society where the politics of life is geared toward maximizing the physical and psychological dimensions of human capital to ensure economic growth, France's Inspectorate for Youth and Sports played a key role in disseminating a new mode of governance of bodies and youth--a form of self-governance based on the rising neoliberal values that…

The aim of this article is to examine how European universities, confronted with national reforms of their governance, have tried to resolve the dilemmas traditionally associated with internal reorganization, the redistribution of power, and the reformulation of teaching and research policies. The article does not focus on the central governance…

Based on a comparison of school external evaluation processes in three countries (England, France and Switzerland), this article questions the possible quality turn in the governance of European educational systems. Using materials collected through qualitative methods (91 interviews, surveys of literature and observations) during a sociological…

Four separate but overlapping power centers in French universities are described and discussed: the state authority (minister), faculty, political and trade unions, and students. Confrontations between these powers have characterized French higher education in the last 15 years, and they have been at the root of the concept of autonomy. (MSE)

The dynamic of articulation between higher education and secondary education in England and Wales, the Netherlands, France, West Germany, and Sweden is examined from historical and administrative perspectives. (MSE)

Basic elements of the higher education system are considered, along with variations across nations (the United Kingdom, Sweden, Japan, Italy, France, the Federal Republic of Germany, Australia, Canada, the United States, Poland, Yugoslavia, Mexico, and Thailand). Three basic elements of the organization of higher education system are identified:…

A comparative analysis of the process by which conflicting interests are implemented in the higher education systems of the United States, England, Sweden, and France is presented. Attention is also directed to differentiation in these systems, and to the systems' receptiveness to such differentiation (i.e., splitting up existing functions, or…