This book analyzes the reforms that led to a differentiated landscape of higher education systems after university practices and governance were considered poorly adapted to contemporary settings and to their new missions. This has led to a growing institutional differentiation in many higher education systems. This differentiation has certainly contributed to making the institutional landscape more diverse across and within higher education systems. This book covers this diversity. Each part corresponds to a different but complementary way of looking at reforms and highlights what can be learnt on specific cases by adopting a specific perspective. The first part analyzes the ongoing reforms and their evolution, identifies their internal contradictions, as well as the redefinitions and reorientations they experience, and reveals the ideas, representations, ideologies and theories on which they are built. The second part includes comparison between countries but also other comparative perspectives such as how one reform is developed in different regions of the same country, as well as how comparable reforms are declined to different sectors. The last part addresses the impact of the reforms. What is known about the effectiveness of such instruments on higher education systems? This part shows that reforms provoke new power games and reconfigure power relations.

Examining the relationship between higher education policy and the state, this book focuses on the ways in which the changing concepts of the nature of the state and its role have had an impact on the development of higher education policy in the last thirty years.

Vietnam is a dynamic member of the community of Southeast Asian nations. Consistent with aspirations across the region, it is seeking to develop its higher education system as rapidly as possible. Vietnam’s approach stands out, however, as being extremely ambitious. Indeed, it may be at risk of attempting to do too much too quickly. By 2020, for example, Vietnam expects its higher education system to be advanced by modern standards and highly competitive in international terms. This vision faces many challenges. The economy, though growing rapidly, remains reliant on the availability of unskilled labour and the exploitation of natural resources, and decision making in many areas of public life continues to be hamstrung by a legacy of over-regulation and centralised control. A large number of goals and objectives have been set for reform of the higher education system by 2020. The success of these reforms will have a major bearing on the future quality of the system. This sober assessment Vietnam’s global competitiveness forms a backdrop to the subject matter of this book, that is, the state of Vietnam’s higher education system. The book provides a comprehensive and scholarly review of various dimensions of the higher education system in Vietnam, including its recent history, its structure and governance, its teaching and learning culture, its research and research commercialisation environment, its socio-economic impact, its strategic planning processes, its progress with quality accreditation, and its experience of internationalisation and privatisation.

This book deepens readers’ conceptual understanding of and provides practical insights into Vietnam’s higher education reforms. Globalisation has had profound impacts on higher education worldwide, creating transnational linkages and junctures, as well as disjunctures. At the same time, it has generated fluidities, hybridities and mobilities. Within the postcolonial context of Vietnam, it is imperative to identify the unique global traits that characterise the Vietnamese higher education system. The book focuses specifically on key aspects of culture and values that are decisive to the reform of Vietnamese higher education under the forces of globalisation. It critically examines how global forces have shaped and reshaped Vietnam’s higher education landscape. At the same time, the book explores local demands on Vietnamese higher education, and deciphers how higher education institutions are responding to globalisation, internationalisation and local demands. Based on empirical research, theoretical approaches and the experiences of researchers from Vietnam and overseas, it addresses critical perspectives on the aspects fundamental to the reform of Vietnamese higher education and outlines viable paths for the future.

This volume consists of articles prepared after two conferences organized by the European Humanities University in Vilnius, Lithuania in 2011 and in 2012. The focus of both conferences was concentrated on the development of reforms and changes in higher education in the social sciences and humanities in Eastern Europe during the last two decades. The collapse of the communist system in Eastern Europe was followed by the enormous expansion of institutions of higher learning, especially in the ...

This book examines some of the major higher education reforms and policy shifts globally, particularly in the light of recent shifts in quality and standards-driven education and policy research. It critiques the neo-liberal ideological imperatives of current higher education and policy reforms, and illustrates the way that changes in the relationship between the state and higher education policy affect current trends in higher education reforms. Using diverse comparative education paradigms from critical theory to historical-comparative research, the chapters focus on globalisation, ideology and higher education reforms and examine both the reasons and outcomes of higher education reforms and policy change. The book analyses and evaluates the policy shifts in methodological approaches to globalisation and higher education reforms, and their impact on education policy and pedagogy. The book contributes in a very scholarly way, to a more holistic understanding of the nexus between globalisation, comparative education research and higher education reforms.

Located within the global changing contexts of higher education in the 21st century, this book examines the reform of the teaching and learning practices in Vietnamese universities under the Higher Education Reform Agenda and the influence of internationalization on the higher education sector. Specifically, it analyses the motives, current implementation, effectiveness, and challenges of these reforms, especially from student perspectives. Analyzing approximately 4300 survey responses and interviews with students, the book covers a range of key issues related to teaching and learning in higher education which have attracted attention in recent years, including: The learning environment Student support and first-year transition Student-centred teaching The use of credit-based curricula The use of information and communication technology At-home internationalization of higher education Assessment and feedback Work placements Informal learning via extra curricular activities Students’ perception of the values of university education.

This text addresses the reforms in the financial and administrative structure of higher education, government intervention in introducing new managerial techniques and quality audits, and the implications of these changes for both academics and administrators. It is one of a series of four volumes which look at the educational dilemmas facing governments, professional educators and practising administrators in the current climate in education. The issues are addressed from international and comparative perspectives.

This volume addresses the conceptions of actors and actorhood in higher education research. It explores the range of actors that are (or should be) recognized and theorized in higher education research, the processes that shape actorhood in the higher education reforms and explores the relations between the actors and higher education reforms. Drawing on a range of theoretical frameworks and research projects, the volume provides in-depth analyses of higher education actors and reform issues through institutional, system or international comparative perspective. The volume celebrates and is in conversation with the intellectual contributions of Professor Pavel Zgaga whose work advances our understanding of actors and actorhood in higher education and higher education reforms.

Universities have never been static. Even so, it is fair to say they have experienced a most radical transformation in the past twenty years. During this period, the role and responsibility of the state generally have been broadly limited while allowing ‘market forces’--private ownership and control--more influence. But even where the state is still the main provider or funder, it relies increasingly on ‘market mechanisms’, for example contractual relations between state and institutions, competition among providers for resources, and external assessment of ‘outputs’ which means the results or impact of what universities do, in particular teaching and research. The new terminology speaks of price and competition, inputs and outputs, resources, cost and benefits, demand and supply, provider and customer, consumers and investors, quality control and accountability. Education, and post-secondary education especially are increasingly seen as matters for markets. Formal post-secondary education becomes a service, commercialized and traded across national borders. This volume on changing relationship between state and market, contains, besides an introductory analytic overview of the issues, accounts from different countries, regions, and thematic perspectives. Chapter authors describe and analyze government reforms and other developments that have directly or indirectly affected this relationship. Although the geographical focus is on North America, especially Mexico, South East Asia and Europe, the phenomenon is not limited to these regions and countries but worldwide.