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International student mobility has been rising as a global phenomenon in the last few decades, while its impact could be various in different contexts. For the European Union (EU), studying in another EU member country could be regarded as an important factor for the solidarity and integrity of the Union. The current study elaborates on the role of studying abroad regarding the attitudes of people toward immigration in the EU. It shows that people who are studying in an EU member country, belonging to higher social classes and from EU15 countries, are more likely to have positive attitudes toward immigration. But after controlling several socio-demographic variables studying abroad still contributes positively to the attitudes of EU citizens toward immigration. Accordingly, current study provides promising pieces of evidence on the social contribution of studying abroad for both future research and policymakers.

Several studies have been published on disengaged test respondents, and others have analyzed disengaged survey respondents separately. For many large-scale assessments, students answer questionnaire and test items in succession. This study examines the percentage of students who continuously engage in disengaged responding behaviors across sections in a low-stakes assessment. The effects on calculated scores of filtering students, based on their responding behaviors, are also analyzed. Data of this study came from the 2015 administration of PISA. For data analysis, frequencies and percentages of engaged students in the sessions were initially calculated using students' response times. To investigate the impact of filtering disengaged respondents on parameter estimation, three groups were created, namely engaged in both measures, engaged only in the test, and engaged only in the questionnaire. Next, several validity checks were performed on each group to verify the accuracy of the classifications and the impact of filtering student groups based on their responding behavior. The results indicate that students who are disengaged in tests tend to continue this behavior when responding to the questionnaire items in PISA. Moreover, the rate of continuity of disengaged responding is non-negligible as can be seen from the effect sizes. On the other hand, removing disengaged students in both measures led to higher or nearly the same performance ratings compared to the other groups. Researchers analyzing the dataset including achievement tests and survey items are recommended to review disengaged responses and filter out students who are continuously showing disengaged responding before performing further statistical analysis.

Globalisation and policy transfer in education make it incumbent upon decision makers to prioritise among competing policy options, select policy initiatives that are appropriate for their national contexts, and understand how system-specific factors moderate the relationship between those policies and student outcomes. This study used qualitative comparative analysis and correlational analyses to explore these relationships with publicly available data on socio-economic, cultural, and education conditions, and their association with PISA 2015 results in 49 countries. Findings show that gender and income equality, human development, and individualism were outcome-enabling conditions for PISA 2015 results, and gender equality was the most consistent of these conditions. These factors significantly moderated the relationships between education policy and PISA results. Implications for the identification of meaningful peer countries for comparative educational research, policy transfer, and the future expansion of PISA are discussed.

This empirical article presents student affairs and services practitioners' perceptions regarding the sense of accomplishment they feel in their job. Results show helping students, collaborating among colleagues, contributing positively to a broader community, and the autonomous and engaging nature of the work itself provided SAS staff across countries and regions with a sense of accomplishment. Authors discuss findings in terms of supporting SAS practitioners in light of changes globally in higher education's expectations and culture.

In this study, we investigated factors predictive of disconnection, or not being in education, employment, or training (NEET), among young adults with at least a 2-year college degree. We also explored the extent to which disconnection influences civic participation and well-being among NEETs with and without college degrees. The authors used 2012 and 2015 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) data from the Survey of Adult Skills in the Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) for 29 countries, including the United States, along with US 2012 data from the Education Longitudinal Study of 2002 (ELS:2002), collected by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). Results highlight that college-educated individuals whose parents have low levels of educational attainment actually have a higher likelihood of becoming NEET relative to college-educated individuals whose parents are more highly educated. Study findings also emphasize the influence of economic and geographic differences (country-level for OECD and county-level for United States) on NEET rates, in addition to the extent to which mothers have a higher likelihood and fathers have a lower likelihood of being NEET relative to their childless peers and the influence of country-level family leave policies on the odds of being NEET across the OECD. College field of study also emerges as an important influence on disconnection across the 29 OECD countries in the study, but not in the United States separately. Finally, comparing results for college-educated NEETs and NEETs without degrees, we found that higher education appears to reduce the likelihood of community disengagement and reports of poor health among NEETs across the OECD countries. However, this is not the case within the United States where NEETs are less likely to be engaged in their communities and more likely to describe themselves as in poor health regardless of their educational attainment.

This study explores the relation between risk of job automation and participation in adult education and training (AET) and examines variation in that relation across welfare regimes distinguishing between situational and institutional barriers. Using microdata of PIAAC, we analyze participation in formal or nonformal AET for job-related reasons in relation to the risk of automation of the respondents' occupation after controlling for main sociodemographic characteristics. Logistic regression models are run on respondents from 14 European countries representing different welfare regimes: Denmark, Norway, and Sweden (Scandinavian countries); Italy, Greece, and Spain (Southern European); Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Poland (Central and Eastern Europe), Belgium, France, and Germany (Continental); and United Kingdom and Ireland (Anglo-Saxon countries). Our findings confirm that workers in occupations at high risk of automation were found to be consistently less likely to participate in job-related AET, quite irrespective of welfare regime. [The paper was presented at XIII Conferenza Espanet Italia--Il welfare state di fronte alle sfide globali (Venezia, 17 September 2020).]

This study aims to identify the literacy skills of individuals whose highest level of education was in the field 'teacher training and educational sciences'. The study sample comprised 10,618 individuals in the field of teacher training and educational sciences, selected from 31 countries (participating in the International Adult Skills Assessment Programme during the 2014-2015 survey) using a multi-stage sampling method. The study employed multi-level latent class analysis and three-step analysis in order to determine both the number of multi-level latent classes of educators' literacy scores as well as the selected independent variables' success in predicting those latent classes. The analysis revealed that educators in Germany constituted the group with the highest literacy skills while educators from Singapore comprised the group with the lowest literacy skills. [This study was presented at the 9th International Congress of Educational Research. Ordu University, Ordu, Turkey.]

This article models the migration flow of EEA students who graduated from masters and doctoral programmes in UK universities. The increased intra-European mobility of students and graduates is claimed to have crucial positive influence on building Europe's high-skill labour force, which in turn would strengthen its competency in the global knowledge economy. However, the absence of accurate quantitative data on degree-mobile students makes it difficult to track and investigate their post-study mobility patterns. Six one-year extracts from the DLHE dataset were analysed (2011/2012-2016/2017) using cross-classified multilevel modelling in order to investigate which group of EEA graduates were more likely to remain and work in UK, and how the patterns were changing in the long-term. The stay rates of students from four countries (Romania, Bulgaria, Italy, and Greece) were found to have stable growth between 2011/2012 and 2016/2017. Graduates who received degrees in Medicine & Dentistry and Computer Sciences were found to have the highest and the most stable stay rates among all graduates. Multilevel modelling results show that, at domicile-level, the difference between home and host country in GDP per capita could be an effective predictor in analysing student post-graduation movement. At HEI-level, the prestige level of HEI could not effectively predict students' stay rate. At individual-level, students' education background and gender identity were significant in predicting stay rate. Results imply that group effects at neither HEI-level nor domicile-level should be ignored. This study provides an empirical foundation for evidence-based decision-making in a field that is heavily contested in policymaking.

A central objective of schooling processes at the international level is reading skills development. Unfortunately, many students in the European Union underperform at this, and these low performances can be more pronounced in countries with lower Human Development Index (HDI) values. This study analysed the contextual effect of school socioeconomic status (SES) on reading performance using PISA data from 27 countries. We found that school SES had a positive contextual effect on student reading performance, especially countries with lower HDI values, via reading self-competence. However, in middle and higher HDI countries, the contextual effect was smaller, and we did not observe an indirect effect via reading self-competence. We conclude that school SES, rather than student SES, matters the most. Therefore, the modification of school composition and resources might act as a buffer for low student SES, particularly in lower HDI countries.

The increasing availability of non-formal education in the form of Open Education Resources (OERs) and Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) gives rise to the questions of how such education can be formally recognized for credit. Prior Learning Assessment and Recognition (PLAR), and Qualification Frameworks are fields of practice actively engaged in and associated with the recognition of non-formal education (RNFE) and can provide guidance on RNFE for the recognition of OERs/MOOCs. A scoping exercise reviews the literatures from the three fields and associated practical exemplars. Findings suggest a growing demand for, growth in, and diversification of, the recognition of non-formal education. Synergies or creative combinations of expertise across the three fields that could be further exploited to gain maximum traction for RNFE are identified. These are multi-dimensional: top-down, bottom-up, sector to sector, country to country, qualification framework to qualification framework, system to system, field to field. There is ample evidence that the process of recognition, albeit demanding, "does" have a positive effect on the quality of the NFE, and by association, it is hoped, on the qualification status of individuals and their access to related social and economic benefits.

Identifying illicit behavior in survey research is inherently problematic, since self-reports are untrustworthy. We argue that fraudulent interviewers can, however, be identified through statistical deviance of the distributional parameters of their interviews. We document that a high proportion of the variation in the data is due to the interviewer. In addition, we show that the incidence of interviewer-induced anomalies is strongly associated with the perceived level of corruption across the countries participating in the European Social Survey 2010. The major implication of the findings is that the data from some countries cannot be used fruitfully for cross-national comparative research.

Introduction: The prevalence rates of bullying vary significantly across countries and continents. Specifically, UNESCO estimates that the prevalence rates vary from 22.8% (CentralAmerica) to 48.2% (Sub-Saharan Africa). Recently these differences among countries andregions have been attributed to culture- and country-level variables. Thus, the first purpose ofthis study is to examine the comparability of bullying in schools across countries. Secondly, across-cultural comparison of the latent mean scores of bullying is implemented. Method: The data of 286,481 adolescent students (M=15.78, SD=0.29) from 32 countrieswere analyzed using multilevel confirmatory factor analyses (MLCFA) and multigroup factoralignment. Results: Results indicated that the meaning of bullying is equivalent within and between cultures. However, cross-cultural differences in bullying are apparent. East Asian countries havethe lowest latent means of bullying, while Southeast Asian countries have the highest means.Anglo-Saxon, Eastern European, Mediterranean, South American, and Middle East countriesdisplayed rather higher scores. Discussion and Conclusion: These findings underscore the existence of cross-cultural differential responding in bullying measures. Further, the implicit role of culture as an importantvariable that determines the rates of bullying is underscored.

This article explores how higher education institutions (HEIs) internationalize, employing information on the internationalization activities (IA), context and organizational characteristics of 431 HEIs from 33 European countries. A latent cluster analysis identifies three distinct clusters of HEIs with distinct portfolios of IA: "basic, academic and entrepreneurial." The "basic" portfolio includes the most common IA, whereas IA requiring larger organizational capacity are rare. The "entrepreneurial" portfolio distinguishes from the "academic" portfolio as it also includes IA aimed to attract resources. We explore what contextual and organizational traits characterize HEIs with different IA portfolios. Small HEIs tend to display a "basic" portfolio, without national variations. On the contrary, strong national variations exist in the frequency of "academic" and "entrepreneurial" portfolios, which strongly relate to the actual and potential importance of tuition fees as a source of revenues.

Recommender systems provide users with content they might be interested in. Conventionally, recommender systems are evaluated mostly by using prediction accuracy metrics only. But, the ultimate goal of a recommender system is to increase user satisfaction. Therefore, evaluations that measure user satisfaction should also be performed before deploying a recommender system in a real target environment. Such evaluations are laborious and complicated compared to the traditional, data-centric evaluations, though. In this study, we carried out a user-centric evaluation of state-of-the-art recommender systems as well as a graph-based approach in the ecologically valid setting of an authentic social learning platform. We also conducted a data-centric evaluation on the same data to investigate the added value of user-centric evaluations and how user satisfaction of a recommender system is related to its performance in terms of accuracy metrics. Our findings suggest that user-centric evaluation results are not necessarily in line with data-centric evaluation results. We conclude that the traditional evaluation of recommender systems in terms of prediction accuracy only does not suffice to judge performance of recommender systems on the user side. Moreover, the user-centric evaluation provides valuable insights in how candidate algorithms perform on each of the five quality metrics for recommendations: usefulness, accuracy, novelty, diversity, and serendipity.

This paper explores linguistic landscapes and the enactment of public visibility and presence of non-majority linguistic groups in EU member states. Non-majority linguistic groups gain power, visibility and presence through the introduction of bilingual or multilingual signposts on roads, streets, squares, and public buildings in towns and cities where a given linguistic group represents a significant population share. The article offers a comparative analysis of language policies of EU member states regarding enactment of official bilingual or multilingual signs in public space. Twenty EU member states have signed the "European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages," while 17 members have ratified it. In addition, the Charter of Fundamental Rights, an integral party of the Lisbon Treaty, stipulates that language diversity is one of the fundamental values respected by the EU. Hence, this comparative research assesses various practices employed by member states in relation to the proclaimed values of multilingualism. Consequently, the paper depicts and compares different language policies that produce linguistic landscapes in EU member states. Finally, it tries to determine whether there is a convergence towards a common EU policy on bilingual and multilingual signs in public space.

This article examines the extent to which parental socioeconomic status (SES) affects the likelihood of a child becoming a top-performing student, offering an international perspective by reporting this relationship in 31 developed countries. The impact of 3 important educational system characteristics (differentiation in terms of early tracking, standardisation, and private schooling) on the relationship between parental SES and top performance was determined. We employed multilevel logistic regression models on data from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2015 (N = 216,980) to reveal that children with low parental SES have a lower probability of becoming a top-performing student than those with high parental SES, although this association differs between countries. The negative relationship between a disadvantaged parental background and top performance was not affected by the educational system characteristics under investigation.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to describe a revised approach describing occupational competence, with particular reference to its application in two European countries at the level of specific occupational fields and in relation to the models used in national vocational education and training (VET) systems. Design/methodology/approach: An Erasmus+ project involved partners in five countries developing and trialling competence standards, following principles developed from approaches that have recently emerged in some British self-governing professions. Findings: The model used in the project avoids the narrowness that was characteristic of earlier British approaches to occupational competence. It provides a template that can be used for articulating the essentials of practice, including in emerging fields and those that cut across professions and occupations. It is also flexible enough to provide underpinnings for different types of VET system without making assumptions about the way that economies, labour markets and education systems are organised. Practical implications: A number of factors are outlined that improve the applicability of practice-based competence descriptions, including starting from occupational fields rather than job roles, focusing on the ethos and core activities of the field, and using concise and precise descriptions that are not limited to specific roles and contexts. Originality/value: A tested, practice-based model of competence is put forward that can be applied at the level of broad professional or occupational fields, is neutral in respect of national labour markets and educational systems, and offers a means of developing a common "language" of competence at a European level.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to discuss the problems of applying competence standards to professional-level work, noting limitations in functional approaches and drawing on developments in professions and on a recent Erasmus+ project to propose a more adequate alternative. Design/methodology/approach: An approach to describing competence based on previously reported developments in some self-governing, principally British professions was used to inform an Erasmus+ project that created competence standards for five higher-level occupations in different European countries. Findings: The original developments in professions and further work through the project both endorse a model of competence that is based on standards of practice, applies holistically to professional or occupational fields rather than focusing on work roles and functions, respects contextual factors in defining competent action, and necessitates situational interpretation and judgement. Practical implications: Descriptions of professional competence need to avoid being overly constrained by assumptions about the roles that practitioners might perform or the context in which practice takes place. They need to reflect the ethos and ethics of the field as well as more transversal aspects of professionalism. Descriptions of this type are likely to reflect factors that are also valued in higher education. Originality/value: The model of competence that is proposed appears to have a good level of validity for high-level professional work, and provides an approach to describing practice that is not limited to particular national contexts.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to review the use of "competence" as a concept and through the use of occupational competence standards in six European countries. Design/methodology/approach: Partners in an Erasmus+ project in each of the six countries prepared a review of the use of "competence" in their countries using a common template. The authors of this paper reviewed additional literature, summarised the individual country reviews and provided an analysis and commentary. Findings: "Competence" is becoming a widely used concept across Europe, but its interpretation and application both vary. Between them, the countries in the study illustrate the use of separate occupational standards, both as a national strategy and developed by self-governing professions; as well as competence embedded directly in qualification and training specifications. The use of separate standards as a mandatory component in national vocational education and training systems is questioned, while the use of appropriate standards for licensing and qualified status is largely endorsed. Research limitations/implications: The country reviews were conducted principally from the perspective of informing the developments taking place in the project, so were not comprehensive and also differed in emphasis between countries. Practical implications: The study points to the need to avoid promoting any particular model of occupational competence at a European level, as opposed to seeking common ground that will aid mutual recognition of qualifications. It also cautions against the uncritical transfer of models and policies from one national system to another. Originality/value: The paper provides additional evidence against "policy borrowing" without careful consideration of context, and contrasts the use of competence standards as part of a system-wide strategy with their tailored application for specific purposes.

Nowadays, women outperform men in educational attainment in many countries. Still, large variation between countries remains. Emancipatory contexts in which individuals are raised might explain these differences in male-female educational attainment, both over time and across countries. This study examines individual and contextual factors that affect educational attainment of men and women for cohorts born between 1950 and 1982 across 33 countries. Possible explanations for differentiation over time and across countries relate to women's labour market participation and an emancipatory normative climate, indicated by degree of religiosity. We employ multilevel models on data (N = 138,498) from 6 waves of the European Social Survey and the US General Social Survey (2002-2012) to test our hypotheses. Results show that a higher level of female labour market participation in early adolescence improves women's performance in education, whereas high levels of religiosity during that phase negatively affect women's educational attainment.

Educational policies and practices are influenced by cultural, political, and economic factors, and this is also true of specialized educational approaches such as gifted education. Factors such as a country's cultural tendency toward egalitarianism or meritocracy, whether the political system is centralized or decentralized, and the degree to which the economy supports basic education for all students may be reflected in the way in which a country approaches gifted education. We examined gifted and talented education policies and practices in 38 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) member and partner countries and considered how those policies and practices may reflect country-specific characteristics. In this article, we discuss ways in which gifted education in OECD countries may reflect cultural, political, and economic features of countries.