Higher Education In England And France Since The 1980s

This book provides a synthetic analysis of the rapid developments that have occurred in English and French higher education since the beginning of the 1980s. The purpose is not to decide which of the two systems is better today, nor is it about formulating advice on policy or best practice borrowing. The aim is to identify and clarify converging or diverging trends and policies, ideals and structures between the two countries since the 1980s in order to build a cross-national understanding of changes in this area of public policy. The book is conceived as a follow-up to the framework of understanding developed by Margaret Archer in Social Origins of Educational Systems (1979). First, change is comprehensively interpreted using this approach. Then the power of other explanatory frameworks (in particular, that developed by Niklas Luhmann and contradicted by Jürgen Habermas) is assessed so as to determine which provides the most convincing account to help understand the recent developments observed. Far from being antithetical, the three models of understanding of social evolution (morphogenesis, self-differentiation and communicative action) prove to be rich in potential for cross-fertilisation.

This book shows that England is unusual if not unique in establishing an Office for Fair Access to safeguard and promote fair access by regulating institutions charging of variable tuition fees for undergraduate programmes through approval of access agreements. For this reason if no other, the experiement should be worth observing.

How has the system of governance changed? Do British higher education institutions still exercise autonomous control over their development? In this book, these questions are pursued through a three-pronged strategy. This book will have lessons for those examining higher education on a comparative/international basis. It is a serious piece of analysis i.e. it is purposefully non-polemical, and it is well-written, non-jargonised and accessible.

The marketisation of higher education is a growing worldwide trend. Increasingly, market steering is replacing or supplementing government steering. Tuition fees are being introduced or increased, usually at the expense of state grants to institutions. Grants for student support are being replaced or supplemented by loans. Commercial rankings and league tables to guide student choice are proliferating with institutions devoting increasing resources to marketing, branding and customer service. The UK is a particularly good example of this, not only because it is a country where marketisation has arguably proceeded furthest, but also because of the variations that exist as Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland increasingly diverge from England. In Everything for Sale, Roger Brown argues that the competitive regime that is now applicable to our Higher Education system was the logical, and possibly inevitable, outcome of a process that began with the introduction of full cost fees for overseas students in 1980. Through chapters including: Markets and Non-Markets The Institutional Pattern of Provision The Funding of Research The Funding of Student Education Quality Assurance The Impact of Marketisation: Efficiency, diversity and equity; He shows how the evaluation and funding of research, the funding of student education, quality assurance, and the structure of the system have increasingly been organised on market or quasi-market lines. As well as helping to explain the evolution of British higher education over the past thirty years, the book contains some important messages about the consequences of introducing or extending market competition in universities’ core activities of teaching and research. This timely and comprehensive book is essential reading for all academics at University level and anyone involved in Higher Education policy.

From the construction of Notre Dame and the Eiffel Tower to the Fall of the Bastille and the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen to NapolZon Bonaparte's defeat at Waterloo to Albert Camus' L'Etranger and the existentialism of Jean-Paul Sartre, France has been a part of some of the greatest and most memorable events in human history. Author Gino Raymond relates the history of these events in the second edition of the Historical Dictionary of France. Through a chronology, an introductory essay, a bibliography, and hundreds of cross-referenced dictionary entries on kings, politicians, authors, architects, composers, artists, and philosophers, a thorough history of France is presented.

This is the first handbook to cover the sociological approaches to higher education. It is timely because of global expansions of mass higher educational systems, especially as these systems come under scrutiny by a variety of stakeholders. Questions are being raised about the value of traditional pedagogies along with calls for efficiency, accountability and cost-reduction, but above all job training. Within this neoliberal context, each chapter examines different sociological aspects of, and debates about, educational institutions as status-conferring organizations, with myriad positional characteristics, experiences, and outcomes. Many current debates concern the legitimacy of the statuses conferred, including the continuing debate regarding the role of universities in legitimating social class reproduction as well as more recent concerns about standards in mass systems. This handbook puts these issues and debates in focus in ways that will be of interest to a variety of stakeholders, within academia as well as in policy circles.

Undoubtedly the most important development in higher education in recent years has been the seemingly inexorable expansion of national systems. In a comparatively short time period many countries have moved from an elite to a mass model. Furthermore, expansion has invariably changed the whole experience of higher education for all the interested parties from, presidents, rectors and vice-chancellors to first-term undergraduates. Structuring Mass Higher Education examines the impact of this change upon the existing national structures of higher education. It also defines and highlights what makes an ‘elite’ university – something which institutions must strive for in order to gain their position as global players. With case studies and contributions from a wide range of international authors, the book explores questions such as: Do higher education institutions retain a national significance, even though the vestiges of an international reputation have long faded? Has expansion undermined the quality of higher education because governments sought to expand "on the cheap"? Is the elite institutional response to mass higher education perceived as a threat to be responded to with purposeful action that sustains their elite status? Does the emergence of the international league tables pose a challenge to those responsible for governing elite institutions? These are critical issues with which both policy-makers and institutional leaders will have to grapple over the next ten years, making Structuring Mass Higher Education a timely, relevant, and much needed text. It will appeal to policy makers and practitioners within higher education as well as student and scholars worldwide.

A comparative, interdisciplinary examination of the mechanisms behind public administration Global Dimensions of Public Administration and Governance is a comprehensive, comparative text on the structure and function of governments around the world. Written by two of the field's leading public administration scholars, this book provides an interdisciplinary perspective and a global, historical, and theoretical examination of the management and governance of the modern state. Readers learn how territory, bureaucracy, and political systems influence policy and reform in over thirty countries, and how these mechanisms affect the everyday lives of citizens. This comparative approach features rich examples of how policy is shaped by culture, and how modern policy principles are filtered to fit a country's needs and expectations. Chapters conclude with comparative analyses that help readers better-understand the role and position of government in the contemporary world, both in democratic societies and less-than-democratic environments. Governance doesn't happen in a vacuum. Those responsible for policy, regulation, and reform take cues from history, current events, and visions for the future to inform thinking on matters that can potentially affect a large number of everyday lives. This book illustrates the thought process, providing the necessary insight these important decisions require. Understand the relationship between structure and function of government Learn how policy is culture-dependent Examine the political and societal contexts of reform Discover the myriad forms of modern bureaucracy The various social sciences provide valuable information and perspectives for those involved in public administration. Those perspectives converge here to form a thorough, well-rounded, examination of the success and failure possible, and the mechanisms through which they take place. Global Dimensions of Public Administration and Governance provides a detailed, wide-ranging look at how modern governments operate, how they got this far, and where they're headed for the future.