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This report explores the challenges to education and training systems that the knowledge economy presents. It outlines policy options for addressing these challenges and developing viable systems of lifelong learning in developing countries and countries with transition economies. It addresses four questions: 1) What does a national education and training system, including its formal and nonformal… Read more
New technologies, globalization, the information revolution, and labor market changes have affected the world economy on an unprecedented scale. As a consequence, the demand for a skilled workforce has increased, world trade and migration have intensified, and the divide between the haves and have‐nots has vastly widened. While many developed countries have by now gone… Read more
In the context of globalisation and the knowledge economy, there has been a dramatic change in the attitudes of powerful international organisations and governments on the importance of higher education in developing countries, which is now perceived to be central to socio-political and economic development. At the same time, the formidable obstacles to the development of robust and high… Read more
This report is a follow-up to the 2008 study published by the World Bank, Accelerating Catch Up—Tertiary Education for Growth in Sub-Saharan Africa, which spelled out the case for more knowledge-intensive growth in Africa and described the critical role of higher education in this endeavor. It examines current practices in financing higher education in Sub-Saharan Africa, taking… Read more
This feasibility study was commissioned to SAHAN research bureau by the Netherlands Organisation for International Cooperation in Higher Education (Nuffic), to investigate the feasibility of involving African diaspora academics and researchers in the Netherlands in a ‘brain circulation scheme’ designed to mitigate the adverse effects of the brain drain in Africa. The findings of the study… Read more
This first Research Report of the UNESCO Forum on Higher Education, Research and Knowledge aims to continue an ongoing vigorous and provocative debate on research systems. The contents of this Research Report and its articulation of emerging trends and challenges are intended to provide fresh insights both for policy-makers and the higher education community alike,… Read more
This research used data from the National Child Development Study (NCDS) to assess the effects of higher education on a number of non-economic adult outcomes, with controls in place to take into account earlier family circumstances and earlier educational attainment. Outcomes were mainly assessed at age 33. Control variables spanned the period from 33 back… Read more
Giving and Volunteering in the United States is a series of biennial national surveys that report trends in giving and charitable behavior. The surveys act as barometers of how socioeconomic conditions and tax laws affect the charitable behavior of Americans. They also chart public attitudes about a variety of issues that affect the climate for… Read more
This study explores the impact of the brain drain on a source country’s welfare and development, which can either be beneficial or harmful. The evidence suggests that there are many more losers than winners among developing countries. Whether a country gains or loses depends on country-specific factors, such as the level and composition of migration,… Read more
This report explores international policy trends regarding the relationship between higher education and the labour market, reviewed mainly from the governmental perspective. It asks what initiatives, policy instruments and approaches can be identified in other countries which are useful for Dutch higher education policy. The report discusses the issue of education supply and demand on the national… Read more
Massive open online courses (MOOCs) have taken the world of higher education by storm. Ubiquitous use of tablets and smartphones, rapid increase of broadband penetration, and the coming-of-college-age of the ‘digital native’ generation have led many top universities to offer some of their courses to a wider audience online, free of charge. Millions of students… Read more