Privatization in Higher Education: Emerging Commonalities and Diverse Educational Perspectives in the Philippines, Australia, Poland and Iran

Over the past two decades, public funding to higher education systems in many parts of the world has been reduced on a per capita basis, even as student enrolments continue to increase. Paralleling this phenomenon has been rapid privatization of the university sector, achieved through the transfer of costs to the community, either through state universities imposing student fees or new private institutions being established. The paper analyzes the course of privatization in the higher education system of Poland, Iran, Australia and the Philippines and concludes that the various privatization pathways being followed are reflective of the differing national traditions of the countries concerned

Predispositions to discriminatory immigration policies in western Europe: an exploration of political causes

We analyze citizens' predispositions concerning policies of immigrant selection and models of immigrant accommodation as observed by the 2002-3 European Social Survey. We focus on some of the EU's major countries, namely: Germany, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom, which were chosen because of their different experiences as migration destinations, as well as for the relevance of their immigration policy models and welfare states. On this basis, we compare citizens' attitudinal inclinations with the policies actually being implemented, and propose interpretations concerning the degree of consistency between both levels. Firstly, we consider attitudes and policies in respect of the discrimination faced by immigrants according to their country of origin and/or economic resources. Secondly, we analyze the attitudes and policies with regard to assimilationist and multicultural integration models. Finally, we examine the recognition of certain rights to migrants