Higher Education Policy Design and Implementation (DOPP5298)

The course provides an introduction to fundamental issues and topics in contemporary higher education policy, with a focus on the design and implementation of higher education policies. 

Higher education is seen as a particularly contested area of public policy, which has important connections with, and impact on, other fields or policy areas. Higher education policies can foster social integration and economic development, but also reproduce inequalities; help the creation of shared identities, but also contribute to societal divisions; and have as much to do with the production of knowledge as with broader political agendas, tensions and conflicts. 

Using an interdisciplinary perspective, the course offers a systematic overview of the key actors, structures and dynamics in the field of higher education. Policy areas covered in the course include policies related to higher education provision and governance, higher education access policies, funding policies, and policies related to accreditation, quality assurance, and performance measurement. 

The course is intended to provide a platform on which further, more specialized, studies in the domain of higher education policy can be built. It also prepares students to pursue a professional career in the governmental or non-governmental sector dealing with educational matters.