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The academic professoriate is a determinant of successful higher education systems. Yet, recently, worsening conditions of employment, deteriorating salaries, and threats to job security have made the academic profession less attractive, especially to young scholars, in several countries. This paper investigates the salaries as well as the recruitment and retention procedures in public higher education institutions from a cross country perspective. The UK, Germany, France, and Italy are adopted as case studies to determine the attractiveness of European higher education systems. The evolution over the last decade creates an extremely variegated picture.

This research paper is one in a series produced as part of the Cedefop project The changing nature and role of VET (2016-18). The aim of the paper is to provide an overview of how CVET is conceptualised in various international level policy documents and how it is referred to across countries. It discusses national conceptions of CVET, the providers, participation by IVET graduates in non-formal education and training (NFE), and participation of adults in VET education institutions in European Union Member States, Iceland and Norway. The paper describes how the provision of CVET by different types of provider has changed over the past two decades, discussing the main drivers of this change and speculating about possible future trends. One of the main findings is that there are many dominant conceptions of CVET across Europe and the use of this term is not consistent, sometimes not even within countries. [The research was carried out by a consortium led by 3s Unternehmensberatung GmbH, led by Dr Jorg Markowitch; the consortium includes the Danish Technological Institute, the Institute of Employment Research (University of Warwick), the Institute of International and Social Studies (Tallinn University) and Fondazione Giacomo Brodolini. The Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB) in Germany is supporting the project as a subcontractor.]

In her April 2010 NILOA paper, "Opening Doors to Faculty Involvement in Assessment," Pat Hutchings called for institutions to involve students in assessment, citing the potential to increase faculty engagement. In Curtis and Anderson (2020), the first author interviewed numerous partnership experts in both the United Kingdom and the United States regarding student-faculty partnerships and the extent to which students currently engage in the assessment process. Findings from the study make it clear that there currently exists little student-faculty partnership in assessment at the program- or system-levels. Combining existing research on partnership and the expert responses from the Curtis et al. study, we present a framework, based on prototyping, for developing student-faculty partnerships in program-level student learning outcomes assessment.

Which occupations are best for wellbeing? There is a large literature on earnings differentials, but less attention has been paid to occupational differences in non-pecuniary rewards. However, information on both types of rewards is needed to understand the dispersion of wellbeing across occupations. We analyse subjective wellbeing in a large representative sample of UK workers to construct a measure of "full earnings", the sum of earnings and the value of non-pecuniary rewards, in 90 different occupations. We first find that the dispersion of earnings underestimates the extent of inequality in the labour market: the dispersion of full earnings is one-third larger than the dispersion of earnings. Equally, the gender and ethnic gaps in the labour market are larger than data on earnings alone would suggest, and the true returns to completed secondary education (though not to a degree) are underestimated by earnings differences on their own. Finally, we show that our main results are similar, and stronger, for a representative sample of US workers. [Funding for this report was provided by an Écoles Universitaires de Recherche, EUR (University Research Schools, EUR) grant.]

The main focus of the paper is on youth unemployment and wider transitions into work, but it also has some thoughts on adult unemployment and re-training. This paper is founded upon a basic assumption -- namely that if the public money available across the United Kingdom to support measures around skills and unemployment is finite, then targeting those most at risk and defining which kinds of measures are the most cost-effective will be important. The information already available (Wilson et al, 2020) suggests that it is known which sectors, occupations, localities and kinds of people will most likely be hardest hit by the coming recession. The main issues will be deciding: (1) What groups to prioritise, which interventions will work best and most cost-effectively, and also which can be delivered to swiftly address the immediate problems liable to emerge as the furlough scheme is wound down and school, college and university leavers hit a disrupted labour market; and (2) what additional measures will be needed in the longer term as some groups experience extended periods of unemployment.

The purpose of this brief paper is to present initial findings from the recently collected London School of Economics and Political Science-Centre for Economic Performance (LSE-CEP) Social Mobility survey, which was undertaken as part of the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) project 'Generation COVID and Social Mobility: Evidence and Policy'. These are the first results from a project that is producing a detailed assessment of COVID-19's impact on education and economic inequalities and offering an assessment for the longer term consequences for social mobility in the UK. Alongside the survey findings, the authors have also analysed economic and education outcomes of individuals in April 2020 in the Understanding Society (USoc) national household panel data. Before the pandemic, younger generations were already facing declining absolute social mobility and real wage decline (Elliot Major and Machin, 2018, 2020a). Education inequalities were also widening. Here new findings are presented on inequalities in the workplace and the classroom that have emerged following the pandemic.

The European Union is likely the most far-developed cross-border public space for higher education. The European Higher Education Area (EHEA) and the European Research Area (ERA) both span an even larger number of countries including associate and partner countries of the EU. Based on shared European values, such as academic freedom, cross-border cooperation, and mobility, these policy frameworks have been developed in Europe over the last decades and with much success. HE systems in this area are thus well-positioned to benefit from cross-border mobility and collaboration but may at the same time face a certain loss of control over HE, for instance with respect to access due to the cross-border flows of students. This seems to make them vulnerable to populist tendencies and neo-nationalist politics seeking to inhibit the free movement of students, scholars, and data. Such tendencies have never been completely absent on the "old continent" but resurged over the uneven outcomes of globalization, the effects of the global financial and consequent Euro crisis, and the refugee crisis. Meanwhile, the impact of the coronavirus crisis is still by and large unknown. Populist tendencies seem now to be turning against the EU, with its freedom of movement for persons (i.e. open borders) as one of its cornerstones and are therefore of concern for the HE sector. Countries such as the UK, Switzerland, Denmark, and the Netherlands have a different position in the European landscape but are all struggling with the complexity of combining the virtues of an open system with constrained national sovereignty. Sovereignty is required in terms of steering capacity in order to balance access, cost, and quality, i.e. the well-known "higher education trilemma." In open systems this is challenged by the "globalization trilemma", which states that countries cannot have national sovereignty, (hyper)globalization and democracy at the same time. How are the EU, its Member States, and the HE sector responding? Will the Union stay united (i.e. Brexit)? Are the legal competencies of the EU in HE strong enough? What about the many European university associations, leagues, and networks? And what do the millions of (former) Erasmus students have to say?

This paper examines inequalities in the match between student quality and university quality using linked administrative data from schools, universities and tax authorities. We analyse two measures of match at the university-subject (course) level, based on student academic attainment, and graduate earnings. We find that students from lower socio-economic groups systematically undermatch for both measures across the distribution of attainment, with particularly stark socio-economic gaps for the most undermatched. While there are negligible gender gaps in academic match, high-attaining women systematically undermatch in terms of expected earnings, largely driven by subject choice.

Many students still leave school without a good grasp of basic literacy, despite the negative implications for future educational and labour market outcomes. We evaluate a programme that involves changing how resources are used within classrooms to reinforce the teaching of literacy. Specifically, the programme involves training teaching assistants to deliver a tightly structured package of materials to groups of young children. Further, we compare the effectiveness of computer-aided instruction using available software with the paper equivalent. We implement the experiment in the context of a Randomised Control Trial in English schools. Both interventions have a short-term impact on children's reading scores, although the effect is bigger for the paper intervention and more enduring in the subsequent year. This paper shows how teaching assistants can be used to better effect within schools, and at a low cost.

This paper examines evidence from the HESA DLHE six-month Censuses and 3½ year ('longitudinal') surveys relating to three aspects of the flows of those who have left university with Higher Education Engineering qualifications, to test the robustness of the conclusions of SKOPE Research Paper No. 122 (Dixon, 2015), which showed strong evidence that most Engineering graduates do not go on to work in the sectors of the economy that might be expected, in particular in the 'natural' Manufacturing sub-sector. Specifically, the paper examines three questions: (1) whether evidence of starting salary levels for those from particular disciplines going into particular sectors could explain the relative flows (on the assumption that higher salaries for graduate vacancies in a particular sector would attract more applications); (2) whether evidence of sector destinations three years on from the (six-month after graduation) Census data analysed in Dixon (2015) would show up significantly different levels of 'leakage'; and (3) whether those entering employment having completed Taught Masters (as opposed to First Degree) courses in particular Engineering disciplines would tend (in the light of their apparent greater interest and deeper understanding in the specific discipline) to enter the "expected" sectors more than their Bachelors colleagues. The "bottom line" answers to these questions is that -- with rather minor exceptions -- none of the relevant broader evidence from HESA DLHE data over a ten-year period significantly questions the very considerable 'leakage', away from the 'natural' Manufacturing sub-sector, that was found and presented in Dixon (2015). (1) There is "some" correlation between the "average salaries offered" (by employers in each 'destination' sector to cohorts from each Engineering discipline examined) and the "size of the flows" from each discipline into each sector, but it is limited and rarely strong. While there might be reasons why average salary differences might not be large enough to provide a sufficient incentive for Engineering graduates to choose one sector over another, evidence of considerably greater correlation would have been helpful to justify the traditional response of classical economics to employers' concerns about shortages: "offer more money"! (2) While there are sample size issues constraining the statistical precision of comparisons between the two DLHE surveys, these have been addressed, and comparisons of the "linear flows" of graduates from each discipline into the natural Manufacturing sub-sector show (a) comparatively very small differences, and (b) on balance, slightly "greater" 'leakage' three years on; and (3) More MSc's in "Automotive" and "Aerospace Engineering" have, over the ten years examined, then gone into the "Manufacture of Motor Vehicles"... and "Air and Space craft manufacture" (respectively) than BEng's from these disciplines. However, for the other disciplines compared, there is little difference, and -- in terms of entry into Manufacturing as a whole, for the most recent year in the period - the fraction of the disciplinary cohorts entering "any type of Manufacturing" is slightly "higher" for MSc's than First Degree (FD) graduates in "three" Engineering disciplines, though "lower" for MSc's than FD's in "four"! This new evidence, therefore, only serves to "strengthen" the great importance of NOT assuming linear flows of Engineering graduates into the "natural" Manufacturing sub-sectors corresponding to their discipline, in particular in policy responses to reports of shortages from such sub-sectors.

The UK's overall school budget has been protected in real terms but does not provide for funding per pupil to increase in line with inflation. Because pupil numbers are increasing, large falls in expenditure per pupil are expected over the next few years unless more funding is allocated. The situation facing post-16 education is a lot worse. A more widespread adoption of grammar schools is very likely to increase socio-economic segregation by school type and is unlikely to lead to any increase in average educational attainment in the country. Although increasing intermediate skills among young people and adults is needed, many concerns have been raised about the how apprenticeship policy is being implemented. This includes an emphasis on quantity over quality and differences in the provision of training opportunities for large employers compared with small and medium-sized enterprises.

We investigate the extent to which graduate returns vary according to the class of degree achieved by UK university students and examine changes over time in estimated degree class premia. Using a variety of complementary datasets for individuals born in Britain around 1970 and aged between 30 and 40, we estimate an hourly wage premium for a "good" (relative to a "lower") class of degree of 7% to 9%, implying a wide spread around the average graduate premium. We also estimate the premium for a good relative to a lower degree for different cohorts (those born between the mid-1960s and early-1980s) and find evidence that the premium for a good degree has risen over time as the proportions of cohorts participating in higher education have increased. Tables and a list of university types are appended.

The United Kingdom (UK) has dramatically increased the supply of graduates over the last four decades. The university system has successfully produced a huge increase in mass higher education over the last 40 years to meet an increased demand for skilled workers. It is one of the UK's most successful export industries in terms of attracting foreign students and is second only to the US in terms of scientific prestige. The coalition government's efforts to transfer the financial burden of higher education away from the taxpayer and towards graduates, and create a more efficient, competitive sector, have not yet materialised. In fact, the current system has almost no price variation and is almost as expensive as the one it replaced. This report discusses the costs and growth of higher education in the UK.

This white paper analyzes the potential effects of requiring income-driven repayment for all federal loans as well as relying on paycheck withholding for loan payments, with particular attention to the implications for low-income students and families. The Institute for College Access & Success (TICAS) also examines the relevance and evolution of mandatory IDR ["income-driven repayment"] systems in Australia and the United Kingdom, and the paper includes specific recommendations to streamline and improve student loan repayment options in the United States. Two appendices are included: (1) Citation List of Figure 2: "Key Comparisons of IDR Systems and Context: U.S., U.K., and Australia"; and (2) Borrower Example Details.

We investigate the rapid influx of overseas students into UK higher education and the impact on the number of domestic students. Using administrative data since 1994/5, we find no evidence of crowd out of domestic undergraduate students and indications of increases in the domestic numbers of postgraduate students as overseas enrolments have grown. We interpret this as a cross-subsidisation and establish causal findings using two methods. Firstly, we use the historical share of students from a sending country attending a university department as a shift-share instrument to predict enrolment patterns. Secondly, we use a change in Chinese visa regulations and exchange rates in combination with strong subject preferences as a predictor of overseas student growth. The following are appended: (1) Additional Figures and Tables; and (2) Data Description. [This paper was produced as part of the Centre's Education & Skills Programme. The Centre for Economic Performance is financed by the Economic and Social Research Council.]

This study addresses qualifications at level 5 of the European qualifications framework (EQF) in 15 countries (Belgium (Flanders), the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Ireland, France, Croatia, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Austria, Portugal, the United Kingdom (EWNI and Scotland) that had linked their national qualification levels to the EQF by June 2012. EQF level 5 qualifications play an important role in providing access to employment and career advancement as well as enabling further learning and progression to higher education. This double function makes them attractive to learners and employers. Although the extent to which countries use qualifications at EQF level 5 differs, their importance is growing in all countries investigated for several reasons. First, they are developed as response to increased needs for advanced technical and/or management skills. Second, they seem to be especially attractive to students with VET background and those already in employment. They also contribute to lifelong learning by being accessible and attractive for adults and non-traditional learners. The following are appended: (1) List of working definitions; (2) List of interviewees; (3) Available data on EQF level 5 qualifications; (4) Key purposes and functions of qualifications; (5) Further material on learning outcome descriptions of qualifications; and (6) Duration and mode of delivery. A bibliography is also included. [The research was carried out by Panteia in consortium with 3S under Cedefop service contract AO/ECVL/JBSPEV/Qualifications_EQF_level_5/001/12.]

The four "home countries" of the United Kingdom are becoming increasingly different with regard to education policy. Nevertheless, they are still highly comparable as compared to education systems elsewhere. Over time, they have had a similar legislative framework (particularly in England, Wales and Northern Ireland) and, in a broader sense, there is a similar social context across the four countries. For example, there is a comparable level of inequality across many education indicators, with similar trends emerging in recent times. In-depth analysis by the National Equality Panel (2010) attributed this to the fact that policies most important for influencing distributional outcomes (such as tax and benefits) are UK-wide. In this paper, the authors take the opportunity to appraise differences and similarities in educational policies and outcomes in the four UK nations. The fact that England has pursued very different policies in the recent past than Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland provides a good testing ground to undertake such a comparative review of what has and has not worked so well in terms of the education reforms that have taken place. The content of the paper is structured as follows. In Section 2, the authors discuss some key areas of education policy in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. In Sections 3 and 4, they compare the countries in terms of educational performance and inequality. In Section 5, the authors then discuss evaluation evidence as it relates to key educational issues and the differences and similarities in educational outcomes across the different UK nations. Section 6 offers some concluding remarks. Data Appendix is included. (Contains 8 tables, 1 figure and 6 footnotes.)

This paper builds on earlier reviews by the author of the changing roles and identities of contemporary professional staff in UK higher education (Whitchurch, 2004; 2006a; 2006b), and describes an empirical study that was undertaken between 2004 and 2007. It progresses the argument that the generic terms "administration" and "management" no longer do justice to the activities of these staff, and uses the concept of identity to develop four categories of "bounded," "cross-boundary," "unbounded" and "blended professionals." Via these categories it is shown how individuals are not only interpreting their given roles more actively, but are also moving laterally across boundaries to create new professional spaces, knowledges and relationships. The paper goes on to introduce the concept of "third space" as an emergent territory between academic and professional domains, in which "unbounded" and "blended professionals," particularly, are likely to work. It considers the implications of these developments for both institutions and individuals, and makes some comparisons with parallel groups of staff in Australia and the United States. Finally, it proposes that "third space" working is suggestive of future trends in professional identities, which may increasingly coalesce with those of academic colleagues who undertake project- and management oriented roles. (Contains 3 figures.) [An earlier version of this paper was presented at the Conference of the Society for Research into Higher Education (Brighton, UK, December 11-13, 2007). The study it describes was supported by a grant from the UK Leadership Foundation for Higher Education.]

There is an extensive literature on the productivity of universities. Little is known, however, about how different types of leaders affect a university's performance. To address this question, this paper blends quantitative and qualitative evidence. First, I establish that the best universities in the world are led by respected scholars. Next, by constructing a new longitudinal dataset, I show that the research quality of a university improves some years after it appoints a president (or vice chancellor) who is an accomplished researcher. To try to explain why scholar-leaders might improve the research performance of their institutions, I draw from interview data with twenty-six university heads in the United States and United Kingdom. These findings have policy implications for governments, universities, and a range of research and knowledge-intensive organizations. (Contains 7 figures and 27 footnotes.)

Is public tertiary education really in a crisis, and, if so, what is the crisis about? This paper analyses international aggregated data and examines to what extent there has been a crisis of public tertiary education in OECD [Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development] countries in the past decade. It first focuses on relative enrolments in the public and private sectors to show that enrolments in the public sector have not significantly declined, and only marginally benefited the private for-profit sector. It then analyzes changes in the funding of tertiary education from the perspectives of tertiary education institutions, students and governments. It shows that only students can (to some extent) complain about a recent crisis of funding and of public funding of tertiary education. Finally, the paper points to other possible reasons for the perceived crisis. Throughout the paper, the differences in the structure of public/private enrolments and funding in the United States and other OECD countries are emphasised to help better understand the differences in tertiary education policy debates in the United States and most other OECD countries. (Contains 5 tables, 5 footnotes, and 9 figures.)

With the tuition cost of traditional colleges and universities soaring and education technology advancing, online courses and degree programs are becoming more common. Some critics argue that an online degree cannot provide all the important features of a traditional college education, from extracurricular activities to new professional networks, but the evidence disputes much of that criticism, especially for certain groups of students. Indeed, some aspects of online education may provide a better experience than a traditional brick-and-mortar college for some students. (Contains 49 footnotes.)

Growth in mixed-sector institutions offering both vocational and higher education qualifications is expected to increase given recent and predicted policy changes. This issues paper focuses on the provision and management of higher education in technical and further education (TAFE) institutes. Issues raised for discussion include the governance of mixed-sector institutions as well as ensuring access and maintaining progression to higher education without sectoral division in the institution. Implications arising from the Bradley review of higher education are canvassed and the authors are inviting discussion on a range of questions related to the nature of policies and practices influencing the provision of higher education in TAFE. A section listing the TAFE institutes that have been registered to offer higher education qualifications and their accredited higher education qualifications, at February 2009 is appended. (Contains 5 tables and 3 footnotes.) [Funding for this document was provided through the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations.]

The business models under which most public universities in the U.S. operate have become unsustainable. They were put in place when state economies were stronger and there were fewer programs making competing claims on state funds. The current Great Recession has made things worse, but the unsustainability of current business models derives from longer-term trends that will prevent state investment in higher education from rebounding to prior levels. States and universities are making both incremental and structural changes in response. Incremental changes work within existing financial and governance parameters to effect cost savings and/or to extend services; they stretch the use of existing or shrinking resources. Structural reforms change financial and/or governance parameters to create different incentives, which focus on performance, outcomes, and stabilizing capacity. A number of these new models are summarized including: "charter" and "public authority" models, the Virginia tiered system model, the Oregon public endowment model, and the UK income-contingent model. Current conditions create both a challenge and an opportunity for statewide higher education systems to re-define their missions and priorities to sustain their public universities for the future. Whether changes are made by drift or by design will determine how well public universities can contribute to the growth of the country in future decades. (Contains 16 endnotes.)

Historically, the UK system has been one of the most successful in combining excellence with access. However the favorable conditions that British universities and colleges have enjoyed in recent years, associated in large part with the introduction of higher tuition fees in 2006, are coming to an end. British universities and colleges face a future of static or even falling local demand, increasing local and international competition, severe public and private expenditure constraints, increased regulation, and greater difficulties in aligning costs with income. In the first instance, these pressures are likely to lead to increased collaboration, often in the form of mergers, where a stronger institution absorbs a weaker partner. In the medium to longer term, the creation of much sharper differences between institutions, and an even more pronounced hierarchy, seem probable. As well as setting back access, these developments (if they occur) will have very adverse consequences for the cohesion, health and standing of UK higher education. (Contains 8 notes.)

A White Paper issued by the Labour government--under Prime Minister Tony Blair--in January 2003 outlines potentially sweeping changes in how British universities might be funded and regulated. These changes would build on three major paradigm shifts and experiments in system building in higher education in the United Kingdom since World War II: the creation and subsequent collapse of a binary system of higher education that included both universities and polytechnics; a decrease in governmental funding and an increase in regulations; and the introduction of student fees into the previously exclusively government-funded higher education sector. The Labour government's new White Paper proposes both to increase funding and to diversify the sources, and more controversially, to allow universities to set their own fees. At the same time, it continues to rely on an accountability and regulatory bureaucracy, and incentive funding, to encourage enrollment growth and to expand access to underserved populations.

The Quality Convergence Study (QCS) project, a follow-up to a 2002 ENQA (European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education) survey of quality assurance practices in European countries, was carried out between September 2003 and October 2004. The project was coordinated by a project team consisting of representatives of ENQA member agencies and conducted by six member agencies of ENQA. The project team also made good use of six external quality assurance experts. This publication at hand is the final report of the project. The objective of the QCS project was to study the possibilities for convergence of national quality assurance systems in Europe through six examples, with the aim of obtaining identifiable reference points for transnational evaluations. In practical terms, the project aimed to find out "why" national quality assurance systems operate in particular, yet commonly identifiable ways in different national contexts. The existing descriptions of "how" these quality assurance processes work, formed the starting point of the project. Consequently, the QCS project had as its distinct purpose to increase understanding of those processes and their context in order to provide a base from which further action might be considered. In that sense, the project broke new ground. The writing of the self-analysis documents (SADs) and their examination constituted an important part of the project. Each participating agency drafted a detailed description about its specific national quality assurance context. After a cross-checking exercise, the SADs were sent to the external experts for analysis on the possibilities of convergence. The SADs have not been included into this paper, but can be found on the ENQA website at: http://www.enqa.net/pubs.lasso. One of the most important findings of the study is that convergence can be achieved not only by identifying similarities in the higher education systems, but also by understanding the different national contexts. The higher education systems are complex and constantly changing contexts for external quality assurance. The overall concept and objectives of the project fit closely with the aims of the Bologna Process. (Contains 20 footnotes.)

This issues paper, the third in a series of eight, is intended to distill formative evaluation questions on topics that are central to the development of the higher and further education information environment in the United Kingdom. The sets of ideas about "good" learning in issues papers 1 and 2 are no longer the private preserve of psychologists and educational theorists, but are beginning to enter into the thinking and conversation of teachers in higher education. The practice and discourse of learning and teaching in higher education is beginning to shift toward a more student-centered model in which the learner's cognitive activity (what the learner does) is acknowledged to be more important than teachers' historic preoccupations about syllabus coverage. The shift from teaching as the transmission of knowledge to teaching as the facilitation of learning has implications for the role of the teacher and for the creator of instructional resources. The focus can no longer be on creating learning resources without regard to their intended contexts. (Contains 11 references.) (SLD)

This issues paper, the fourth in a series of eight, is intended to distill formative evaluation questions on topics that are central to the development of the higher and further education information environment in the United Kingdom. As the online environment becomes a feature of teaching and learning, it offers lecturers the opportunity to provide their students with active links that will take them direct to learning resources. Preliminary evidence suggests that the context in which this linking is done is not always as helpful as it might be. This paper highlights some of the pitfalls encountered so far in providing links to online resources for students. The need to provide context is apparent. Effective resources for students are organized, with headings that explain their use and explanations that make the purpose of the link clear to the student. It is important to maintain links, and to be sure that URLs have not disappeared or changed ownership. Some sources of help in creating links to online resources include libraries and librarians, Web resource persons, and other members of the teaching or learning unit. (SLD)

This issues paper, eighth in a series of eight, is intended to distill formative evaluation questions on topics that are central to the development of the higher and further education information environment in the United Kingdom. This study focused on the searching behavior of higher education students as they attempted to locate electronic resources. The study was part of a usability study that aimed to evaluate the quality of information environment services. Students were asked to find information on 15 set tasks, completing a questionnaire after each item. Forty-five percent of students used Google as their starting point, and the second most highly used starting point was the university online catalogue, used by 10% of the sample. Nine percent of students used Yahoo and other search engines were used by the rest. Students appeared to like search engines for their familiarity and because they had been useful in the past. Seventy percent of the students thought that they had been successful, and 50% said the search had been easy. A third, however, found it difficult. Results make it clear that more work needs to be done to give students the awareness and skills to use electronic resources other than Google. (SLD)

This issues paper, fifth in a series of eight, is intended to distill formative evaluation questions on topics that are central to the development of the higher and further education information environment in the United Kingdom. The term "portal" is so widely used by so many people with so many different perspectives that definition is difficult. In its simplest form a portal is a filter for Web content, a place form which users can locate the Web resources they commonly need. Other aspects of portals that receive attention are the fusion function of portals, which involve cross searching of multiple resources and presentation of the aggregated results within the portal. Personalization is an aspect of a portal in that they select information on the basis of the individual user's needs. Portals for higher education will need to meet many requirements, and they will need to address a significant proportion of the resources that are available within the fields. Many of the issues surrounding portal development have little to do with technology, and more to do with sustainability and determining user needs. (SLD)

This paper responds to the Nuffield Languages Inquiry regarding the following: what language capabilities the United Kingdom (UK) will need in the next 20 years to fulfill its economic, strategic, social, and cultural goals and aspirations; the extent to which current policies and arrangements meet these needs; and strategic planning and initiatives needed. In recent decades, English has achieved an unprecedented world role, but current patterns of world demography and population are rapidly changing the relative numbers of first language speakers for significant languages. Thus, the UK must provide foreign language training as an integral part of education for all citizens. Citizens must become proficient in at least one major language of the European Union (French, German, and Spanish). The paper recommends including a language question in the Census of the Population to determine the range of languages spoken. The United Kingdom lacks coordination from one sector to the next at all levels of foreign language learning. A shortage of foreign language teachers is a critical problem. It is necessary to recognize the interconnectedness between the development of English and other mother tongues and the move into foreign languages; language competence and awareness; and language development and the need to improvise and make mistakes in the course of learning. (Contains 17 references.) (SM)

This is a report on the quality review of distance learning in a sample of five countries. The report was commissioned by the Council for Higher Education Accreditation's (CHEA's) International Commission in order to understand better the nature of existing regulatory arrangements in the context of growth in electronically supported learning and in the import and export of education world-wide. The data collected from readily available public sources were used to create country case studies for Jordan, Malaysia, Australia, Kenya and the UK, which were subsequently verified by in-country experts. From the data and information collected, a summary report was produced in two parts. Part One summarizes information and issues arising from relevant policy reports and academic literature. The sections of the report cover: context and terminology, approaches to quality review, agencies involved, review processes, and challenges and issues in the quality review of distance learning. The second part presents data from the case studies. After a brief section outlining the socio-economic context, educational system and policy context for each country, Part Two addresses the main themes of the project: the nature of distance learning in each country and the main providers, the nature of the regulatory and quality assurance systems as they apply generally and to distance learning in particular, and the relationship between trade in educational services (from an importing and exporting perspective) and arrangements for quality review. [This report was produced by CHEA (Council for Higher Education Accreditation) Institute for Research and Study of Accreditation and Quality Assurance. It was prepared for the International Commission of the Council for Higher Education Accreditation.]

The United Kingdom does not yet have any lifelong learning pedagogies. The country has a stratified and segmented educational system, with little connection between those sectors that might be regarded as contributing to the concept of lifelong learning. The reasons for this lack of connections between sectors were examined during an 18-month study that included a literature review and resulted in identification of the following pedagogic "identities" assumed by adult educators: educator as critical practitioner; educator as psycho-diagnostician and facilitator of learning; educator as reflective practitioner; educator as situated learner within a community of practice; and educator as assurer of organizational quality and efficiency and deliverer of service to agreed or imposed standards. These identities were analyzed within the following conceptual dimensions: learning within a community versus individualized learning; disciplinary community versus pedagogic community; moral and social accountability versus organizational accountability; educator as "person in the world" versus anonymous/invisible educator; and student as "person in the world" versus anonymous/invisible learner. The analysis established that it is impossible to disentangle learners' situatedness from the educative process and that the split between adult education and higher education lies at least partly in the relationship between pedagogical theory and practice. (Contains 38 references.) (MN)

Two important sets of performance indicators for institutions of higher education have become established in the United Kingdom: research quality ratings and teaching quality ratings. The research quality ratings and, to a lesser extent, the teaching quality ratings influence the level of government funding provided to higher education institutions. This paper considers the correlations between the two ratings and the possible consequences of policies which reshape the higher education sector by concentrating research resources in a limited number of institutions. Comparisons are made between quality assurance/assessment approaches in the United Kingdom and the United States, finding that U.S. higher education is much larger, more heterogeneous and has less government control than U.K. higher education, While the U.S. system of colleges and universities is generally unranked (by those responsible for accreditation), the UK system includes rankings. Use of use various analytical approaches to compare teaching and research ratings for both systems concluded that it remains unclear whether the measurement standards will lead to improvements in teaching and research. (Contains 38 references.) (Author/DM)

The following conference papers cover a wide spectrum of issues in continuing education: "Introduction" (Katherine Leni Oglesby); "Footprints in the Sand?--The Legacy of the University Funding Council's Support for Research in Continuing Education" (Chris Duke); "Thinking Fragments: Learning, Life Histories and the Self" (Linden West); "Group Research Projects in Adult Continuing Education" (Joan Unwin); "Adult Self-Directed Learning in the Community and Its Implications" (Keith Percy); "Creativity Training for Design Engineers in Heavy Plant Industries" (Graham Thompson, Martina Lordan); "The Leeds Adult Learners at Work Project: Knowledge and Control in Employee Development Schemes" (John Payne, Keith Forester); "'Personal Troubles and Public Issues': University Researchers, Adult Educators and Adult Learners in Rural Areas" (John Payne); "Voluntary Organisations. Citizenship, Learning and Change" (Konrad Elsdon); "Inside Perspectives: Ex-Prisoners' Views on Prison Education" (Sally Malin, Ina J. Kell); "Mainstreaming, Critical Histories and Cultural Identities" (Tom Steele); "Responding to Language Shift among Young People" (Heini Gruffudd); "Accessing the Imagination: Creative Writing in Community Education" (Rebecca O'Rourke); "Learning from Working Together: Experiencing Collaborative Research as Education" (Sue Shuttleworth et al.); "The Challenge of Linking Research and Practice: Ways of Learning in Adult Basic Education" (Mary Hamilton, Wendy Moss); "Disability Voice" (Mal Leicester); "Returners, Mathematics and Targeting" (Roseanne Benn); and "Access of Adult to the University: A Comparative UK/Belgian Study" (Barbara Merrill, Jean-Luc Guyot). Many papers contain substantial bibliographies. (MN)

This study examined the allocation of government research grants to universities in the United Kingdom in the context of the current funding system which distributes such grants based on universities' performance in the marketplace. Marketplace performance indicators include academic staff and postgraduate student counts, grants from Research Councils, income from contracts with industry, donations, and research ratings. Research grant data were analyzed to determine if the allocation of research grants reflected the performance indicators outlined in the funding methodology. A multiple regression analysis was used to determine the relationship between indicators and allocation of grants in the academic years 1990-91, 1991-92, and 1992-93. The results showed that the funding formula was used to allocate research grants to the 50 long-established United Kingdom universities with a large coefficient of multiple determination in the three years examined. A large proportion of grants were explained by the performance indicators: 73.1 percent in 1990-91, 80.9 percent in 1991-92, and 86.2 percent in 1992-93. (Contains 45 references.) (JLS)