Welfare Reform on the Web (November 1999): Education - Overseas

THE COST OF MANAGERIALISM: THE IMPLICATIONS FOR THE 'MCDONALDISATION' OF HIGHER EDUCATION IN HONG KONG

K H Mok

Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management, vol. 21, 1999, p. 117-

Paper examines how higher education in Hong Kong has gone through a process of marketisation, with particular reference to the strategies and approaches of the University Grants Commission, the central funding body for higher education institutions in Hong Kong, to assure quality and 'value-for-money' in higher education in the territory. Ends with a discussion of the implications of the adoption of a 'management-oriented' approach in delivering educational services.

EDUCATION POLICY AND EQUALITY: SOME EVIDENCE FROM EUROPE

J S Ambler and J Neathery

Social Science Quarterly, vol. 80, 1999, p. 437-456

Data from a variety of sources on the social origins of students in higher education in France, Sweden, Britain and Germany, from the 1960s to the 1990s, are examined and compared using, when data allow, a simple odds ratio. Results show that the expansion of secondary and higher education enrolments contributed to a modest decrease in the effect of social class of origin upon access to higher education when measured by the odds ratio. No clear evidence was found that the introduction of comprehensive schools had contributed to this trend. The trend disappeared entirely when it was measured by the percentage difference between the participation rates of children of upper and lower classes.