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While the literature in skill formation systems has paid considerable attention to inter-variation between types of national skill formation systems and intra-variation among individual types as in the case of collective skill formation systems, less is known about the role of the European Union in establishing a European model of skill formation. Building on studies in educational governance and decentralised cooperation, this paper analyses the European Alliance for Apprenticeships (EAfA) and explores its relationship to national skill formation systems. We analyse the emergence of a European model of collective skill formation and offer case studies of Ireland and France to understand how this European model relates to these two contrasting skill formation systems. Through deductive qualitative content analysis of official documents, we show that: (1) the EAfA, in resembling characteristics of national collective skill formation systems, promotes the emergence of a European model of collective skill formation; and (2) that Ireland and France show signs of moving further towards adopting elements of a collectivist training model centred on apprenticeship training although mediated by path-dependencies of a liberal (Ireland) and statist (France) skill formation model.

The Europeanization of higher education has gained considerable scope and momentum over the past quarter century. Whereas the coordinative Bologna process, with soft governance mechanisms, has facilitated standardization across countries, European Commission funding programs target universities more directly. The Erasmus Mundus Joint Degree Programme, as an incentive-based program, epitomizes the dynamics of such European funding management. Notably, it has established expanding university networks across Europe and unique new tertiary degrees that facilitate international student mobility. Applying social network analysis to 561 participating universities through several program cycles, we longitudinally examine three key patterns in the program's development: the expansion of the program, the consolidation of pan-European networks, and the participation of and coordination by central universities in these Europeanization processes. Program participation increased considerably across cycles, even as established networks were consolidated, largely through re-accreditation of established programs. Moreover, we identify those universities that assume a central position in the inter-organizational structure of this international program. These universities actively facilitate the evolving Europeanization of higher education by strengthening inter-university networks via a signature EU program.

Higher education (HE) scholarship often focuses on the so-called 'entrepreneurial' university as a consequence of new public management reforms. Simultaneously, the remarkable expansion of private HE is said to fragment, specialize, and diversify HE systems. Such diagnoses are misleading as they ignore wider environmental pressures and simultaneous changes in both public, non-profit and for-profit HE. We argue that putative diversity in HE operates as a ceremonial façade behind which large-scale isomorphic change across national HE systems, sectors, and organizational forms occurs. Multiple causes trigger such change originating in the increasingly global HE environment, including a burgeoning international HE regime, accounting and accountability practices, increased permeability of HE systems facilitated by open borders, education markets, and global science as well as (neo)liberal ideologies stressing human capital and human rights. As other organizations, those in HE become subject to these pressures turning universities into more rationalized, standardized, and strategic actors.

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While higher education research has paid considerable attention to the impact of both ratings and rankings on universities, less attention has been devoted to how university subunits, such as Schools of Education, are affected by such performance measurements. Anchored in a neo-institutional approach, we analyze the formation of a competitive institutional environment in UK higher education in which ratings and rankings assume a central position in promoting competition among Schools of Education (SoE). We apply the concepts of "institutional environment" and "organizational strategic actors" to the SoE to demonstrate how such university subunits articulate their qualities and respond to the institutional environment in which they are embedded--by using ratings and rankings (R&R) to compete for material and symbolical resources as well as inter-organizational and intra-organizational legitimacy. Through findings from 22 in-depth expert interviews with members of the multidisciplinary field of education and a content analysis of websites (n = 75) of SoE that participated in REF 2014, we examine the stratified environment in which SoE are embedded (1). We uncover how R&R are applied by SoE within this competitive, marketized higher education system (2). Finally, we indicate the strategic behaviors that have been triggered by the rise of R&R in a country with a highly formalized and standardized research evaluation system (3). The results show both homogenization and differentiation among SoE in their use of organizational vocabulary and the applications of R&R while simultaneously revealing strategic behavior, ranging from changes in internal practices to changes in organizational structures.

Orofacial clefting represents the most common craniofacial birth defect. Cleft lip with or without cleft palate (CL/P) is genetically distinct from cleft palate only (CPO). Numerous transcription factors (TFs) regulate normal development of the midface, comprising the premaxilla, maxilla and palatine bones, through control of basic cellular behaviors. Within the Pbx family of genes encoding Three Amino-acid Loop Extension (TALE) homeodomain-containing TFs, we previously established that in the mouse, Pbx1 plays a preeminent role in midfacial morphogenesis, and Pbx2 and Pbx3 execute collaborative functions in domains of coexpression. We also reported that Pbx1 loss from cephalic epithelial domains, on a Pbx2- or Pbx3-deficient background, results in CL/P via disruption of a regulatory network that controls apoptosis at the seam of frontonasal and maxillary process fusion. Conversely, Pbx1 loss in cranial neural crest cell (CNCC)-derived mesenchyme on a Pbx2-deficient background results in CPO, a phenotype not yet characterized. In this study, we provide in-depth analysis of PBX1 and PBX2 protein localization from early stages of midfacial morphogenesis throughout development of the secondary palate. We further establish CNCC-specific roles of PBX TFs and describe the developmental abnormalities resulting from their loss in the murine embryonic secondary palate. Additionally, we compare and contrast the phenotypes arising from PBX1 loss in CNCC with those caused by its loss in the epithelium and show that CNCC-specific Pbx1 deletion affects only later secondary palate morphogenesis. Moreover, CNCC mutants exhibit perturbed rostro-caudal organization and broadening of the midfacial complex. Proliferation defects are pronounced in CNCC mutants at gestational day (E)12.5, suggesting altered proliferation of mutant palatal progenitor cells, consistent with roles of PBX factors in maintaining progenitor cell state. Although the craniofacial skeletal abnormalities in CNCC mutants do not result from overt patterning defects, osteogenesis is delayed, underscoring a critical role of PBX factors in CNCC morphogenesis and differentiation. Overall, the characterization of tissue-specific Pbx loss-of-function mouse models with orofacial clefting establishes these strains as unique tools to further dissect the complexities of this congenital craniofacial malformation. This study closely links PBX TALE homeodomain proteins to the variation in maxillary shape and size that occurs in pathological settings and during evolution of midfacial morphology.