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Given the increasing importance of digitalization in all levels of education, it is crucial to focus on innovative methodologies that leverage digital tools to enhance the learning process. To this end, this contribution proposes a strategy centered on establishing student-faculty partnerships. This approach provides students with the opportunity to actively contribute to their own learning journey and become more engaged in the process, thanks to the personalized attention given to their educational needs and interests by teachers and the wider school environment. The focus of the specific cooperation described in this paper is to define a digital framework for classroom activities. In addition to the numerous benefits that can arise from this partnership, it is also essential to establish a connection between secondary schools and higher education institutions, which are increasingly sensitive to student engagement, as students can leverage the skills and knowledge acquired at earlier stages of their education to successfully navigate their future career paths. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate contemporary changes in the education system. In particular, an analysis of the mechanisms of coordination and communication involved in the process can show how different geographical factors with different relational mechanisms may contribute to the creation of a new academic entrepreneurship. Design/methodology/approach: The authors propose a methodology with two-step approach. In the first part of the paper, they use a theoretical approach to carry out a longitudinal study of academic literature on the topics of "entrepreneurial university," "academic entrepreneurship" and "spin-off organizations." In the second part, they use cross-database analysis to theorize the main aspects of recent developments in higher education in Italy. To this end, the authors use three public and open-access databases on spin-offs, universities and higher education institutions and incubators in Italy. Findings: First, issues relating to the formation and best practices of entrepreneurial universities are discussed, based on the works of researchers from 25 countries. Second, a hypothesis is put forward to suggest that the organizational model of entrepreneurial university affects microeconomic competitiveness. Third, a case study of Italian spin-off organizations suggests that the number of incubators and spin-offs, and the type of academic knowledge, all directly affect the entrepreneurial university. Originality/value: This paper aims to examine the role of the university in the modern economic system. The originality of this investigation lies in its ability to offer a picture and first analysis of the main actors and of the entrepreneurial university system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on the policy paper, "Social mobility and elite university," by Lee Elliot Major and Pallavi Amitava Banerjee, published by the Higher Education Policy Institute. Topics discussed include the policy report focusing on access to higher education and its conclusion that it will take almost a century to achieve the Office for Students' goals to provide access to highly-selective universities.

• The aim of this paper is to develop a model to analyze the interdependence between the indicators and compute the KPIs under the large group. The major contributions include five points. First, the hesitant 2-TUPLE linguistic is utilized to deal with the fuzzy assessment information regarding the interrelationships of indicators. Second, the experts are clustered based on the similar degree method. Third, this paper determines the weight of clustering with evaluation information based on the minimized variance method. Fourth, an extended DEMATEL method is used to analyze the relationship among indicators and calculate KPIs to improve the internationalization of higher education system. Finally, the proposed model effectively achieves the analysis and evaluation, KPIs are provided for the improvement of the internationalization of higher education. The internationalization of higher education has become an important means for countries worldwide to develop and enhance their strengths, in which performance measurement plays a vital role. However, current performance measurement usually involves many indicators, and it is impossible to improve them all due to resource constraints. Therefore, a suitable performance measurement system can enhance the international influence and competitiveness of higher education institutions. In response, based on the matrix decision, this study develops a large group evaluation approach using a hesitant 2-tuple linguistic model. The decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) method is used, and key performance indicators (KPIs) are determined for higher education internationalization. In the method, the KPIs are focused on by constructing the correlation matrix between indicators using the hesitant 2-tuple linguistic model, which can then be determined by the extended DEMATEL method based on the cause-and-effect relationships between the performance indicators. In the case study, the effectiveness and applicability of the proposed hesitant 2-tuple linguistic DEMATEL method are verified. The results show that the proposed model can help higher education institutions focus on a limited number of key indicators and systematically manage higher education internationalization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Academic success and failure are relevant lifelines for economic success in the knowledge-based economy. The purpose of this paper is to predict the propensity of students' academic performance using early detection indicators (i.e. age, gender, high school exam scores, region, CGPA) to allow for timely and efficient remediation. Design/methodology/approach: A machine learning approach was used to develop a model based on secondary data obtained from students' information system in a Nigerian university. Findings: Results revealed that age is not a predictor for academic success (high CGPA); female students are 1.2 times more likely to have high CGPA compared to their male counterparts; students with high JAMB scores are more likely to achieve academic success, high CGPA and vice versa; students from affluent and developed regions are more likely to achieve academic success, high CGPA and vice versa; and students in Years 3 and 4 are more likely to achieve academic success, high CGPA. Originality/value: This predictive model serves as a classifier and useful strategy to mitigate failure, promote success and better manage resources in tertiary institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on Great Britain Government's white paper entitled Success as a Knowledge Economy: Teaching Excellence, Social Mobility and Student Choice, regarding access to higher education and higher education participation. It informs that the Government's aim is to go ahead with proposals to make it easier for "challenger institutions" to award their own degrees and it plans to give students more information about teaching standards and job prospects.

The article presents the response of the British Government, published in a series of White Papers, to the Augar review of post-16 education. Topics discussed include consultation on new plans to drive up quality of university courses launched by the Government, student loan interest rate for borrowers starting courses from 2023-2024, and reply of David Hughes, Chief Executive of the Association of Colleges, to the Government's announcement.

The motivation behind this paper is to understand the status of water resources management education provided in higher education institutions (HEIs) in India and decipher gaps between what is taught and what is needed in the field. The assessment has been carried out based on the information available on the respective websites of the HEIs using keywords. The authors have also reached out to faculty members and final-year students in universities/HEIs in India. There are a good number of HEIs in India, which offer educational programmes in waterrelated subjects, though their distribution is skewed and there seems to be a clear bias in favour of the technological aspects of water. Relatively fewer HEIs engage themselves in social, economic and gender-related issues. It is imperative to popularise research in the social, economic and regulatory aspects of water management. Not all HEIs have provided information about the areas of research they engage in, on their websites. Further, a limited number of faculty members and students have responded to the questionnaires. The preparedness of any country in addressing its current challenges can be gauged from the incorporation and subsequent entrenchment of these roles into the fabric of HEIs. This article can be looked upon as reference documents which will go a long way to enabling the identification of synergies, interlinkages and collaboration opportunities to find solutions for a plethora of challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article describes a higher education White Paper as a flawed strategy that will fail to achieve many of the aims of the government of Great Britain, according to a report from the Higher Education Policy Institute in Great Britain. The report considers the emergence of a bipolar system as a factor that could exacerbate inequality between institutions and it warns about the competition among universities to recruit AAB students. It also raised issues on reforms and financial support.

The article reports on Great Britain Government's white paper, Success as a Knowledge Economy: Teaching Excellence, Social Mobility and Student Choice, on access to higher education and higher education participation. It informs that the Government's aim is to go ahead with proposals to make it easier for "challenger institutions" to award their own degrees and it plans to give students more information about teaching standards and job prospects.

The article highlights the issues raised by "Fulfilling Our Potenial: Teaching Excellence, Social Mobility and Student Choice," the higher education Green Paper published by the British government on November 6, 2015. Topics covered include graduate employability, teaching standards, wider participation in higher education, the role of universities in increasing the productivity of the British economy, Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF), and Research Excellence Framework.

The article presents information on conference papers on students' university experience in Great Britain. Dilly Fung found that students view their university experience as a journey with elements of both risk and comfort. Rosalyn George and Anna Traianou said that British students and universities may fail to seize opportunities for cultural interchange being offered by globalized higher education. Ron Best cited the prevalence of self-harming students in certain subject areas.

The article offers information on the key points of the Great Britain higher education white paper, including the power of the Office for Fair Access to repress institutions that failed to attract poorer students, the requirement to publish student report cards on contact hours, student satisfactions, and employment outcomes, and allowing private companies to provide sponsorship to students.

The article presents a summary of the British government's White Paper on higher education, which includes the proposal for universities to compete for one in four student places.

Reports on the criticism to the government's white paper for higher education in Great Britain. Changes in research funding; Corporate structure of learning institutions; Need for universities to remain internationally competitive.

Purpose – Since the present university leading cadre capability evaluations are mainly static, there is a lack of evaluation methods to address dynamic and multi-scale-based situations. Some important factors to address people's performances, such as the developing trends and potentialities are considered. The purpose of this paper is to attempt to propose a dynamic evaluation model based on multivariate delay connection number. Design/methodology/approach – First, evaluation results of previous periods are taken into the current period and values of uncertain numbers are revised. Next, a dynamic evaluation model is built for university leading cadre. Last, a numerical example is used to prove its feasibility and effectiveness. Findings – This paper promotes a corrected equal portion value method of uncertain numbers i1(τ), ... ,in(τ) from the adjacent two periods to multi periods, and builds a dynamic evaluation model, which proved simple-structured and easy to apply. Practical implications – The new model is applied in the evaluation of university leading cadre, and could give a more comprehensive, dynamic, scientific analysis for evaluation by model application. Originality/value – The paper develops a novel evaluation model based on a multivariate delay connection number, which expands traditional methods from a static situation to a dynamic and multi-scale-based situation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within weeks of taking office, Australia's new Labor government commissioned two major reviews -- one of Australia's innovation system and one of Australian higher education. Taken together, these reviews will have major implications for the future of research and teaching in Australia for decades to come. This paper discusses the main recommendations of these reviews, puts them into context and examines the government's response. Although the innovation review was conducted first, this paper begins with the higher education review because its recommendations, at least in regard to universities, are broader. Those parts of the innovation review that are relevant to universities follow. The paper concludes with a brief discussion of what will happen next. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on the development and application of a model used to estimate the costs of scholarly communication (i.e. scholarly publishing and related activities) in Australian higher education. A systems perspective was used to frame a review of the literature on the costs involved in the entire scholarly communication value chain and inform the development of a scholarly communication system cost model This paper presents estimated scholarly communication costs for higher education institutions in Australia, based upon the modelling, local data collections and stakeholder consultation, that may prove useful in the management of institutional budgets and priorities. It represents the first systematic attempt to estimate the costs of scholarly publishing related activities in Australia, and it could be easily applied elsewhere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper sketches the impact of globalisation and internationalisation on the terrain of values and ethics in higher education. The first part of the paper discusses values and ethics in higher education in relation to the "Idea of a University", and identifies the ethical regimes essential to the functioning of higher education institutions as knowledge-forming organisations. The second part draws out implications of globalisation. Globalisation together with the strengthening of executive steering are associated with the partial "disembedding" of higher education institutions from their national governments, along with a pluralisation both of their spheres of operation and the range of private goods and public goods they produce and of the public they serve. This raises new questions about the governance and management of the values and ethical regimes associated with global goods, e.g. the obligations of communicability, mutuality, academic freedom, the protection of persons in higher education suggested by cross-border relationships, and the modes whereby these values and ethics are promoted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the debate on the third cycle of European higher education. Currently, much attention is paid to improving the structure and quality of doctorate education in the European context of the Bologna process and the Lisbon objectives. However, alternatives to the traditional doctorate are hardly addressed in the policy documents of governments and other agencies. The promise of one of these alternatives -- the professional doctorate -- is discussed. Without suggesting this alternative to be the ultimate solution to problems in the third cycle, the paper argues that a dual policy strategy seems appropriate: improving the traditional doctorate and allowing alternatives to flourish. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is based on seven national reports on national policies concerned with entrepreneurialism in universities as the context for a more detailed study of entrepreneurial behaviour in universities in the seven countries. It claims that the entrepreneurial university is a useful generic epithet to describe the manifold changes in mission, management and funding that many universities in Europe have experienced in the past two decades. The concept of university entrepreneurialism in most countries is linked to the "third mission" that is supplementing the long established teaching and academic research functions of universities and other higher education institutions. However, some governments are also concerned to encourage universities to embody the teaching of entrepreneurialism in at least some of their conventional courses. Five main drivers of entrepreneurial activities in the countries taking part in the "European Universities for Entrepreneurship: their role in the Europe of Knowledge" (EUEREK) study are identified: ideology; expansion in the number of institutions; the knowledge society; globalisation; financial stringency. In some countries, especially in Eastern Europe there has been rapid growth in numbers of private higher education institutions. There are questions about whether this is an indication of entrepreneurialism, or of lack of entrepreneurial dynamism in the established public universities. The paper concludes with a preliminary review of managerial and governance changes in universities and colleges accompanying the growth of entrepreneurial and third mission activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the development of policies designed to widen access to higher education policy in the United Kingdom. These policies have evolved in the context of the devolution of political authority to the Scottish Parliament and Assemblies in Wales and Northern Ireland, which has resulted in some policy variation. The paper examines the "post-code premium" paid by the funding authorities to universities based on the students from poorer areas. By using Northern Ireland data the paper demonstrates the major problems to this approach arising from the "ecological fallacy". The paper concludes by expressing surprise that policy developed with little apparent awareness of these problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The substantial pressures upon higher education systems and institutions are impacting upon individual roles and career paths. Yet recent research on academic identities (Henkel, 2000) suggests the responses are largely adaptive and evolutionary. This article starts by briefly revisiting some of the key aspects of the study by Kogan, Moses and El-Khawas (1994), and the paper by Gordon (1997), before turning to a short discussion of the principal trends which have affected the scene subsequently. It then explores three scenarios in terms of roles and career paths: evolution, selective restructuring, and step-change restructuring. The possible characteristics and implications for various stakeholders of each are considered, as is the connection to current trends, and indicators of change. The paper concludes with suggestions as to how institutions and systems might strategically plan for, and manage, changes in roles and career paths in order to ensure that individuals are motivated and perceive the changes positively and creatively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Points out that college freshmen in Great Britain with ordinary diligence can expect a decent 2.1, and that will be enough to ensure that they secure the graduate premium appropriate to the sort of degree they have done and where they have done it. Tendency of college teachers to conform with the general expectation; Side effects of the usual course delivery.

Reports that students from China and other Asian countries are using fake English-language certificates to try to enroll in overseas universities. Issuance of forged English competency certificates through the British Council's International English Language Testing System (IELTS); Cost of fake certificates.

Presents newspaper headlines on the British education system in June 2003. Reaction to the plan of National Union of Teachers to conduct an early election of its next general secretary in the "Independent" and "Guardian"; Factors that contributed to the increasing number of teachers leaving the profession in "The Times."

Presents several published reports on the education system in Great Britain as of June 6, 2003. Plan to extend the title university to specialist higher education institutions in the "Daily Telegraph"; Report by Richard Garner in the "Independent"; Concern on the effect of education budget crisis on school scholarships in the "Times."

Reports on the expansion program of higher education in Great Britain. Regional collaboration between universities; Disadvantages of adopting American regional models; Development of strategic partnerships between regional organizations; Application of the multiversity model.

The article informs on a paper "Isaac Newton Institute: COVIDdiseases--tra-19 and universities" by the Higher Education Working Group at the Isaac Newton Institute on the imapct of COVID-19 pandemic on Great Britain universities. It mentions that transmission importations into the student population from the community AND to the community from student populations do occur.

The author comments on the British Government's response to the Augar review of post-16 education in a series of White Papers. Topics discussed include consultation launched by the Government on plans to drive up quality of university courses and ensure degrees equip students with the skills they need, changes in student loan repayment, and report of the Public Accounts Committee on the Kickstart Scheme for young unemployed people.

This paper examines the drivers for knowledge exchange in British research-intensive universities, at a time when research impact is coming to be seen as an increasingly important outcome of research in all disciplines. It provides evidence of an over-emphasis of the economic benefits of knowledge exchange in the policy sphere and of a quite different value system amongst academics. Academics' commitments having been described as occupying a single bounded space, this enhanced understanding of the motivations and needs of academics as they engage in knowledge exchange points to a new way of approaching the facilitation and promotion of knowledge exchange activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The competiveness of the diverse sector of higher education sees universities increasingly reliant on marketing to position themselves within their main stakeholder groups. In doing so, the use of marketing techniques developed for the service industry are being adopted at strategic and tactical levels with little research to support such undifferentiated action. This paper discusses a number of issues joining marketing with the moral leadership of the university in a persistently competitive and commercial market place. We seek to offer practical actions to ensure that marketing remains a service to the institution and does not convert the mission of all institutions to one of consumerisation. We do this by discussing how a relationship model of engagement with stakeholders might be grounded in a virtue ethics imperative and how this might contribute to brand development and accountability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines China's efforts to remove corruption and inefficiency to create a globally competitive system in its universities. China has become the world's largest provider of higher education and the second largest source of academic research papers. Philip Altbach, director of the Centre for International Higher Education, believes that China needs to ensure that the human and philosophical aspects of education is well developed aside from the physical aspects.

There are increasing pressures for universities to commercialise their research and increase their contributions to their local and regional environments. For those institutions located in areas of low demand, this can lead to a low-impact equilibrium of universities working with external partners, and having relatively low impact. In such circumstances, universities have to "build up" local demand for their knowledge. But this is long-term, costly and volatile, and so partnership and collaborative models of capacity building may be one way for universities to maximise the benefits whilst minimising the risks. In this paper, we explore how capacity in such situations builds up, and whether university regional associations (URAs) can help universities to develop regional capacity in such situations. The case study demonstrates that URAs can become a focal point for a community of regionally engaged university actors. It is this community which can help universities to rationalise and make sense of local uncertainties, and thereby increase total university regional contributions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The policy debate on accountability in higher education has been vigorous in many countries, but it has focused primarily on broad objectives or approaches. Limited attention has been paid to the mechanisms by which universities would implement accountability objectives and to the critical role of academics in developing ways to assess learning outcomes. Yet, giving members of the professoriate a central role in accountability is vital: implementing accountability requires decentralised implementation linked to the differing circumstances of study fields and levels. Academics must be involved in a sequence of tasks - developing assessments, testing and refining them against new evidence, making sense of accountability results, and responding with changes in programmes or delivery. This paper outlines a process showing how universities and other tertiary institutions could develop and use outcome measures for student learning. It also recognises that professional and disciplinary associations (e.g. business, education, chemistry, literature and social welfare), nationally and internationally, could contribute to these developments in their specialty fields. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Australian government uses numerous strategies to promote specific agendas -- including continued efforts to deregulate the higher education sector. These strategies comprise the reduction of government funding to universities in real terms to oblige institutions to seek alternative sources of income; the targeted deployment of government funding (including growth places and infrastructure funding); the use of reward-based incentives; the actual or threatened re-distribution of funding based on performance; competitive grants; and amending funding mechanisms to support desired behaviours. In addition, strategies not involving direct funding are also used through special policy provisions, the establishment of bodies and forums to promote issues; the publication of position papers and protocols; the publication of performance information or review outcomes; the employment of reporting and accountability processes and frameworks; and various approaches to promote, encourage or oblige sector restructuring. A major thrust of the Australian government's higher education policy is to encourage sector diversification through encouraging individual institutions to adopt their own clear and unique identities. This poses many challenges and opportunities for new generation regional institutions trying to position themselves in an increasingly competitive higher education market while continuing to meet their obligations and remain relevant to their local communities. The University of Southern Queensland's experience in pursuing its vision as a leader in open and flexible higher education is explored within the context of these potentially competing agendas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that it is the condition of the university for the time being to live with incompatibility of identity and purpose, and to tolerate an intolerable breadth of mission. This predicament is frequently masked, mercifully perhaps, by confusion of language used to analyse the role of the university, and unclear thinking about how this is best portrayed. As will quickly become evident, this is relevant and important both to the leadership and management of individual institutions and for policy in respect of mass higher education as a system, in particular to the subject of diversity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To improve student satisfaction and success, higher education institutions (HEIs) need to find their niche, establish their own identity and get on with doing what they do best. Strategic enrolment management (SEM) is a comprehensive process that requires understanding markets, supply and demand, programme development, and student recruitment and retention. SEM involves the entire institution, relies heavily on institutional research and ultimately establishes strategic goals that are placed within the framework of the overall institutional planning model. In this process, the HEI also creates a mission that distinguishes it from other institutions. This paper will examine the key components to a SEM model and discuss how this process is interfaced with institutional planning. It will also present a research project to gather data on HEIs throughout Portugal in an effort to show what must be done to create a SEM process in institutions there. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on a study of four major Canadian universities' strategies for generating revenue in the face of prolonged cutbacks. The universities are placed on a continuum of higher education funding, institutional types and organisational attributes. The study produced new hypotheses about how universities' organisational attributes change as a result of the need to generate revenue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the relationship between the diversity within a higher education system and five key factors, namely: the environment, policy intervention, funding, competition and co-operation, and ranking. The exploration is based on the extent to which higher education systems, particularly those of Australia and New Zealand, have accommodated distinctive forms of higher education institutions characterised by the older traditional university at one extreme, and the newer university of technology at the other. Twelve interdependent propositions on diversity are proposed and discussed. These propositions indicate the ways in which each of the five key factors may influence institutional diversity or convergence. In the majority of circumstances, the convergent tendencies of institutions will predominate unless very specific environmental and economic conditions prevail, and/or specific directed policy is implemented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The three papers that follow were delivered on 22 April 2006 at a conference of the California Association of Scholars at the Annenberg School on the campus of the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. The aim of the panelists was to diagnose the political and cultural imbalance in higher education, to analyze its causes and consequences, and to look for remedies. Other essays from that conference may appear later in AQ. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reports on written parliamentary questions on education, children's services and training from the Scottish Parliament from October 31 to November 4, 2005. The Executive has corresponded with officials in Universities Scotland and the Scottish Funding Council on this issue, and will continue to consult these bodies as it develops a contribution to the Great Britain's response to the Commission's consultation paper. The European Commission's proposals for a European Institute for Technology should offer some helpful opportunities for the Scottish higher education sector.

This paper explores the theoretical foundations of the concept of entrepreneurialism in universities and the contribution it can make to the knowledge society. It reviews the concept as an economic phenomenon and draws a distinction between the use of the term in economics and its use in higher education and that in higher education it can be seen as a contested idea which can in some circumstances be destructive of academic values. On the other hand it can strengthen institutional autonomy and can be an enabling process which stimulates research and innovation. Barriers to entrepreneurialism at national and institutional levels are noted and the important area of risk. Two particular ideas are discussed, the concept of the academic entrepreneur and the relationship between the new emphasis on universities' regional role and the nature of the entrepreneurial university. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we examine the tensions resulting from the transformation processes going on in research and teaching, typical at traditional universities that have been actively developing their research mission. We will also look at universities that only recently decided to focus on research and wonder if they will be able to better manage or even avoid such tensions. More specifically, we will reflect on the possibility of unbundling the teaching and research missions and the resulting tasks of professors. A growing number of newcomers in higher education are taking up parts of the activities of traditional universities. How will they develop? What are the possible answers from traditional players? In addressing these questions, we will look at the value chain for each of the activities and see if and how reconfiguration can provide the answer. The analysis will enhance our understanding and provide inspiration for new management approaches. In traditional institutions, unbundling seems to have started at the structural level but support systems are lacking and at the individual level academics are still expected to engage in research and teaching besides many other tasks, such as administration and service to the community at large. We will discuss these issues in the context of the broader literature on the topic and draw conclusions that should be relevant for everyone in the higher education sector involved in managing tensions between research and teaching. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The research-intensive and competitive knowledge society is putting HEIs (higher education institutions) under the spotlight. While many HEIs around the world do not proclaim or wish to be research-intensive institutions the majority desire to intensify their research activity because it is seen as a sine qua non of higher education. Accordingly, HEIs are busy making critical strategic choices concerning human resources, the research environment, the teaching-research nexus, organisational and management structure, and funding. Governments are also making choices, using policies and financial instruments to help shape institutional mission, priorities and HE systems. But if governments genuinely desire to widen access to the knowledge society and achieve a greater contribution from higher education to economic and social development more is required. This paper applies Porter's diamond of competitive advantage to illustrate the complex relationship between institutional mission and policy constraints, proposing changes in strategy and policy to unlock potential. There are important lessons for both institutions and government. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on an analysis of policy contexts in several OECD countries, this article examines the rapidly changing policy environment in Japan exemplified by the 2004 transformation of national universities into "incorporated" entities. The role of universities in the knowledge society is examined in light of the emergence of new research and learning systems, conditioned by forces of both globalisation and regionalisation. This historic legal change affects state-university relations in a number of distinctive ways. It is generally assumed that universities will find themselves in a more competitive environment accompanied by cuts in public funding and that there will, therefore, be a growing need to find external sources of funding as well as more efficient and responsive management approaches. The Japanese Government is further opening the higher education system to society and industry, which has resulted in new forms of competition and collaboration among local and global strategic partnerships. The impact of these new relationships can be perceived in four principal dimensions: economy, human resource, governance and community. Based on the conceptual notion of "constructed advantage," this paper highlights spatial knowledge networking capabilities between institutions/agents at local, national and global levels. Universities are formulating new strategies in networking knowledge, whilst future state policy and evaluation mechanisms warrant close investigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Educational systems worldwide still continue to rely heavily on public sources of funding. Nearly 80% of the expenditure on higher education comes from public sources in OECD countries; the share is even larger in developing countries. There is a concerted effort in many countries to reduce the reliance on state funding and move towards market-friendly reforms. This involves adjustment in the macro-policy framework to induce change at the institutional level. Institutional changes could be brought about either by relying on "mandates" or on "rewards". Mandates demand a particular form of institutional behaviour that is accompanied by the threat of punishment for a failure to comply. Rewards, on the other hand, provide incentive and motivation to change. Both rewards and incentives become effective when public policy provides a choice in behavioural changes at the institutional level. The motivation for a change of behaviour will depend on the level of performance that conditions a reward on the one hand and on the expectation for obtaining a reward, on completion of the task, on the other. In general, mandates are more easily complied with when institutions are struggling to survive, whereas incentives and rewards are preferable when institutions are striving to revive and grow. Incentives and reward systems are relied upon in many countries to induce changes in higher education. This paper will focus on the potential of effecting institutional changes through incentives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]