Offers a brief history of the Dublin Core initiative, an international, interdisciplinary effort to define a core set of elements for resource discovery. Describes outcomes of Dublin Core Workshops 1-4. Discusses outcomes of the Helsinki Metadata Workshop, focusing on the "Finnish Finish" which will form the basis of the first formal…

Challenges to formulating research priorities in the Canadian North include: the large number of agencies setting research agendas; poor communication among agencies; low federal commitment to research supporting international protocols and agreements; no political will to promote Canadian leadership in Northern research; inadequate funding for…

In recent years, many scholars have become fascinated by a contemporary, multidimensional process that has come to be known as "globalization." Globalization originally described economic developments at the world level. More specifically, scholars invoked the concept in reference to the process of global economic integration and the seemingly…

This article examines the role of the European Union's Commission in weaving together the Bologna Process and the Lisbon research strategy with its existing educational initiatives to define and disseminate an influential vision of European higher education. The article begins by outlining the Commission's activities in relation to EU education…

This article compares the results of the implementation of the new bachelor-master system in the Netherlands and Germany. The Bologna Process presents the common European context for this reform process. However, the respective national contexts differ, and so do the actual implementation processes and the emerging outcomes. For each of the two…

National policy agendas for quality assurance in higher education (HE) are increasingly influenced by supra-national trends and decisions. Taking Spain, Switzerland and The Netherlands as examples, the paper analyses how supranational trends are re-interpreted at the national level and how recently formulated national policies combine the demands…

Fettes (2004) asserts that "politico-strategies" of languages are no longer viable frameworks for "national and community policy". Rather, he proposes the development of "geostrategies of interlingualism", i.e. linguistic strategies which promote international communication equitably and efficiently, whilst respecting…

The EU offers opportunities to schools - within the Comenius Programme - to develop and implement specific studies in which pedagogical, lingual and science-oriented objectives can be internationally combined if schools from at least three European countries are ready to share in a common project. Geography seems to be especially suited for such…

This study aims to capture the most important recent trends related to the Bologna reforms. It is a follow-up to the two "Trends Reports" that were written for the Bologna Conference in 1999 and the Prague Conference in 2001. Unlike the two first reports, which were mainly based on information provided by the ministries of higher…

This paper discusses the European dimension of peace education. The argument is that a united Europe has also an impact on peace education. A peaceful Europe has to become the common task for peace educators all over Europe. This is the aim of the EURED peace education network whose work is here explained. EURED plans to provide in-service teacher…

The specialisation Library Science at the Hochschule Darmstadt/University of Applied Science Darmstadt is the newest academic program in Germany for the higher education of librarians. Five current trends in library science in Germany reflect the new "Darmstadt Model": (1) The delimitation of a specific professional field…

This article presents a theoretical framework for an encompassing international comparative study of a central aspect of the Bologna process; the introduction of two-tiered study structures (TTSS), often referred to as "Bachelor and Master". The framework is tailored to understand and explain the patterns of TTSS that currently emerge in…

The world continues to change rapidly and globalization is fostering common social, economic, and political agreements among countries. Agreements by governments have created opportunities to enhance educational and research endeavors that, by design, will remove barriers that previously have limited the flow of students, educators, researchers,…

Considering the global competitiveness and the global opportunities that graduates face in the twenty-first century, every college and university must prepare its students for their profession, for their business, and, especially, for their life in a global society and economy. Preparation for life in a global society does not just mean learning…

Prior to 1991, all higher education institutions in the Soviet Union were state institutions. There were some 900 higher educational institutions in 1990, including only 70 major universities, still referred to as VUZy, from the Russian "vysshee uchebnoe zavedenie". This acronym is popularly used to refer to all types of higher education…