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The literature on the consequences of academic inbreeding shows ambiguous results: some papers show that inbreeding positively influences research productivity measured by the quantity and quality of publications, while others demonstrate the opposite effect. There are contradictory results both in the studies of different countries and within countries. This variety of results makes it impossible to transfer the findings from one academic system to another, and in Russia this problem has been under-explored. This paper focuses on the relationship between inbreeding and publication activity among Russian faculty. The research was conducted using data from the ‘Monitoring of Educational Markets and Organizations’ survey. The results show that there is no significant effect of academic inbreeding on publication productivity: no substantial and robust differences in publication activity between inbreds and non-inbreds have been found. The paper finishes with a discussion of possible explanations inherent in the Russian academic system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main purpose of the paper is to estimate the efficiency of a big public university in Italy using individual student-level data, modeling exogenous variables in human capital formation through a heteroscedastic stochastic frontier approach. Specifically, a production function for tertiary education has been estimated with emphasis on inefficiency and its determinants, taking explicitly into account the role played by students’ socio-economic and educational background. The empirical evidence, based on 48,338 freshmen, leads towards the use of individual-level data in order to control for the portion of the student academic achievement affected by the personal characteristics and effort, and the portion ascribable to the resources or organization of the institutional activities. Within the limit of external validity allowed by operating within only one university, efficiency scores derived from using both individual-level and aggregate level data do offer an important instrument to the university and governance structures. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The paper assesses the evolution of efficiency of Italian public universities for the period 2000–2010. It aims at investigating whether their levels of efficiency showed signs of convergence, and if the well-known disparity between northern and southern regions decreased. For this purpose, we use a refinement of data envelopment analysis, namely window analysis, which allows for measuring efficiency in cross-sectional and time-varying data. We find that the efficiency of most universities registered only marginal changes in the period, although a notable re-ranking occurred. However, changes in the management of universities, consequential to the reform processes, did not affect the long-run tendencies, such as the persisting difference in performance between north and south. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Data envelopment analysis (DEA) has often been used to evaluate efficiency in the context of higher education institutions. Yet there are numerous alternative non-parametric measures of efficiency available. This paper compares efficiency scores obtained for institutions of higher education in England, 2013–2014, using three different methods: the original Charnes et al. method and two slacks-based methods (SBM-Min and SBM-Max) developed by Tone. The findings suggest that results are highly sensitive to methodology chosen. Hence caution is required in applying the results in any policy context. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A major requirement for transformation contained in the new education policy in South Africa is that the graduate outputs of the higher education system should match the needs of a modernizing economy. This paper addresses the organizational aspect of university-industry relationships that is an element of the transformation. In empirical terms, it reflects upon the policy of the North-West University in South Africa, as embodied by means of the introduction of the Business Mathematics and Informatics (BMI) curriculum and research. Empirical results indicate that the number of students who opted for mathematics had increased dramatically. The majority of graduates delivered by the BMI programme are employed in the financial sector, both nationally and internationally. This paper indicates that the organization of university-industry relationships enforces a difficult institutional balancing act that attempts, on the one hand, to meet the benchmark of international scientific indicators, and on the other hand, “fitness for purpose” in the local context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to report on who creates branding within institutions of higher learning, and what impact branding has on core institutional activities such as student recruitment and fundraising, as well as on socio-psychological factors such as community respect and national prestige. Eighty-nine tertiary education experts covering three world regions were surveyed in order to gather information to fulfil the paper's objectives. The nature and extent of involvement of enrolled students, alumni, higher management, external consultants, civic leaders and the business community were investigated to identify the part each plays, if any, in the development of an institutional brand. Findings indicate that institutions have a tendency to brand from the top down rather than from the bottom up. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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 for cross-national harmonisation with the long-lasting influence of decisions and procedures run in the past in the domain of quality assurance. In this perspective, the paper argues that cross-national policy harmonisation, a key prerequisite for the construction of the European Area of Higher Education, is challenged by the long-lasting influence of national path dependent policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the emerging approaches to the governance and management of institutional change at South African higher education institutions. The discussion firstly locates these approaches within the broader context of the new governance framework that is contained in the new higher education legislation, and in particular the emerging forms of institutional governance that this has spawned. The paper then describes and discusses the challenges facing institutional leaders in shaping higher education organisational change in the light of the transformation challenges that arise from the implementation of the new legislation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we address the transition from higher education to work among graduates with a master’s degree, with a particular focus on over-education. We relate to an ongoing debate on whether too many students undertake a master’s degree, and the consequences a surplus of graduates may have. Our data show that the transition from higher education to work has not become much more difficult during the period 1995–2013, despite a huge increase in the number of graduates. Unemployment rates fluctuate, but were lower at the end of the period than at the beginning. Regarding over-education, we find an increase at the beginning of the observation period, but a striking stability in years when the number of graduates rose sharply. When considering all educational groups together, we find no association between the number of graduates, business cycles and the prevalence of over-education. However, we find some exceptions when looking at different subject fields. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Decreasing government funding and regulated tuition policies have created a financially constrained environment for Canada’s universities. The conventional response to such conditions is to cut programme offerings and services in an attempt to lower costs throughout the institution. However, we argue that three Canadian universities have reacted with a different response. Instead of cutting costs, the University of Toronto, Queen’s University and the University of Lethbridge have chosen to implement decentralized budgeting and management structures in an attempt to increase efficiency and seek out new revenues. Using interview data and document analysis, this paper discusses the responses of these institutions and what they tell us about the strategies universities employ to cope with financial challenges that are likely to persist. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In many quarters, attempts are underway to identify learning outcomes in higher education which are context-neutral or ‘generic’; such measures could provide new ways to assess and compare outputs from higher education. This paper considers potential challenges in using such broad learning outcomes across contrasting disciplinary and national settings. An empirical contribution is provided by an analysis of data from the international REFLEX survey for Norwegian and English bachelor’s degree graduates. This sheds some light on the relationships between graduates’ broad learning outcomes (general competencies), their national contexts and their disciplinary area. It finds variations in competencies across subjects and countries, suggesting that general competencies of the type often suggested as generic learning outcomes may be unstable and problematic to compare across contrasting settings. It highlights the need for comparative research into variations in learning outcomes and graduate competencies considering disciplinary and national factors. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

With the passage of the 1992 Further and Higher Education Act the British system of higher education formally moved from a binary to a unitary structure. However, ever since successive governments have argued for a diversified model of higher education within which institutions should pursue contrasting goals. This article offers an interpretation of the key ingredients of institutional diversification and constructs alternative structural models of higher education. It proceeds by exploring the changing structure of British higher education since the creation of the unitary model. The argument is that there has been a steady emergence of flexible sectors, which both converge and diversify. However, there is a danger that the 2011 White Paper, rather than sustaining flexible sectors, could intensify the nascent shift in the direction of stratification marked by increasing differentiation between sectors as they converge internally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of the study is to identify the patterns of change in higher education institutions. It examines the contexts of the changing quality assurance mechanisms used by the different types of higher education institutions in England, Japan, and New York State between 2001 and 2007. The paper argues that there were no clear patterns of institutional change in terms of speed, intensity, extensiveness, momentum, trajectory, and consequence between centralized and decentralized institutions and public and private institutions. The study suggests three points for explanation why institutional types do not shape certain patterns of institutional change. The first point is that institutional change heavily relies on agents' interactions. The second point is that the ideas of centralized or decentralized and private or public per se are becoming ambiguous in the market or market-like systems. The third point is that the relationship between the central authorities and the institutions is far more significant than the types of institutions in the formation of particular patterns of institutional change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1974, when a successful revolution had overthrown a dictatorial regime, Portugal had an elite higher education system with low participation rates. In the decades following the revolution, the state developed policies aimed at increasing student participation to European levels. However, higher education policies have been through frequent changes and adaptations as they were confronted by successive managing paradoxes and contradictions between political steering, social demand, economic relevance and institutional attitudes and reactions. This paper presents an analysis of the political drivers that justified and legitimised the changing policies of access to higher education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper the authors argue that the use of the Open Method of Coordination (OMC) in the implementation of the Bologna process presents coordination problems that do not allow for the full coherence of the results. As the process is quite complex, involving three different levels (European, national and local) and as the final actors in the implementation process higher education institutions (HEIs) have considerable degree of autonomy, assuming that the implementation of Bologna is a top-down linear policy implementation process does not account for the developments taking place, which produce implementation difficulties at several different levels. Constraints resulting from economic concerns at European and national levels may be an obstacle for the Bologna's contribution to a social Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is a contribution to knowledge sharing in the field of distance learning. It presents and discusses the findings of a study on the quality review of distance learning in a sample of five countries. The study was commissioned by the Council for Higher Education Accreditation's (CHEA) International Commission in order to understand better the nature of existing arrangements and their potential impact in the context of growth in electronically supported learning and the import and export of education world-wide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Higher education in Croatia is confronted with new trends and quality demands mostly connected with Bologna processes. It is assumed that Croatian universities with their existing governance structures, characterised by strong state regulation and weak institutional administration, cannot respond effectively to new demands. Findings of the survey on conceptions of governance at the Croatian universities are presented in the paper, with its main aim to explore academic staff's perception of university governance. The idea of the university as a ``learning organisation'' with strong leadership and engaged academic staff is taken as the desired model. Mapping the opinions of academic staff on the present governance structures, their role in governance issues, and making an inventory of their perceptions of strengths and weaknesses of governance processes, forms important background for reflections on adequate modifications in academic governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In many countries, the state has stepped down from its former role as the provider and legitimator of higher education and the institutions are expected to take an active role as entities with authority to plan and regulate their own activities. How do the institutions respond to such expectations? In this paper, recent experiences from Swedish higher education provide the empirical base for discussing the internal devolution of authority, the Vice Chancellor's (rector's) role, and the strengthening of the rectorate. With regard to internal devolution of authority, three models are identified: The hierarchical model, the federation model and the triangular model. The rector's role is apparently changing from the traditional primus inter pares towards a more personal and executive leadership role. The rectorate is often strengthened by the establishment of advisory groups, vice rectors etc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies on economies of scale seek to establish at what size an institution functions at an optimal level of efficiency. Higher education mergers produce an increase in the scale and scope of an institution, and are commonly driven on an expectation of economic benefit. To what extent are greater value for money, savings in government expenditure, significant institutional financial benefit, achieved through the pursuit of economics-of-scale-focused policies? The paper investigates the varied findings of sixteen studies into economies of scale and scope in higher education, associated cost factors and cost/size relationships, and considers the strategic implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]