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The aim is to assess how a policy of tertiary education for all affects the shape of the unconditional earnings distribution.

The paper discusses the quantile-regression literature looking at the link between education and wage inequality, also proving new evidence based on unconditional quantile regressions.

The findings support the idea that a policy of tertiary education for all increases the overall level of wage inequality.

The research has implications for public policy and administration. Among the limitations, the paper does not deal with distributional aspects related to other outcomes (e.g. health outcomes) of the policy of interest.

The analysis highlights a series of potential government interventions aimed at reducing the wage-inequality externalities of the policy of interest.

A policy of tertiary education for all, by itself, is not useful to fight wage inequality.

This paper belongs to the small group of studies using unconditional quantile regressions to study the link between education and wage inequality. It is the first study specifically looking at the distributional effects of a policy of tertiary education for all.

The purpose of this paper is to identify and evaluate the role and influence played by the discipline of accounting through its association with the multiple logics of government reforms to transform the public tertiary education sector in New Zealand.

The study adopts a case study approach utilising multiple data collection methods. Neo-institutional theory provides an insightful complement to neo-liberalism and enhances the understanding of institutional logics driving government reforms and the transformation of public tertiary institutions.

The findings reveal that accounting has become a powerful conduit for the exercise of the neo-liberalism reforms by government and implemented by managerial control over public tertiary education institutions.

By addressing a gap in the literature, the paper shows how political and economic neo-liberal policies have been implemented in tertiary education with the discipline of accounting being adopted as a prime driver of these reforms. The paper has significant implications for educational management, academics and learners in understanding how and why the inherent nature, objectives and processes of the overall educational experience have undergone a radical reformation.

New Zealand is one of the first countries to implement these educational reforms and adopted “accounting technologies” to reduce costs and improve performance. But the reality has often been very different. Most of the government’s original objectives have not been fulfilled and the reforms have been costly for the academic profession. This paper provides a valuable source of learning for academics, managers and politicians.

In the late 1960s the Victorian vocational education sector was in crisis. The federal Martin Report into tertiary education excised many of the sector’s university‐level courses and relocated them into new Colleges of Advanced Education (CAEs), leaving many ‘middle‐level’ and technician vocational courses in limbo. Junior technical schools also offered apprenticeship and middle‐level courses, further confusing where courses were, or should be situated, suggesting an overall ‘gap’ in program provision. This challenge came when the Technical Schools Division (TSD), the smallest of Victoria’s three division structure (primary, secondary and technical) continued its struggle to maintain sectoral identity through courting acceptance from private industry and the public sector for its credentialed programmes. With significant others, TSD Director Jack Kepert, followed by Director Ted Jackson, responded by designing policy to reshape the TSD’s structure and functions and its reporting relationships within a new technical college and junior technical school system. Jackson’s policy statement, The future role of technical schools and colleges (1970) facilitated these changes. The paper narrates the events constituting this period of policy innovation and evaluates their contribution to the creation of a more seamless

This paper aims to investigate the strategy, accounting and accountability interface in sustainability implementation in a large public tertiary education organisation in New Zealand.

The study uses ethnography as an “engaging research” to help explain the real-life enactment of accounting and accountability in advancing/deterring sustainability initiatives. The study draws upon neo-institutional theoretical perspectives to help interpret the findings.

Accounting and accountability are powerful conduits for strategy implementation. Successful sustainability strategy implementation requires the embedding of financial accountability within the implementation process.

A strong ideological commitment from senior management is required to firmly embed sustainability in the tertiary organisation's belief systems, values and norms to get wider organisational acceptance and institutionalisation. Accounting needs to take a position of centrality within organisations to help facilitate sustainability implementation.

Government policy needs to incorporate specific concepts of sustainability into the tertiary education strategy and funding framework to make public tertiary organisations accountable for sustainability to the wider society.

This study provides unique insights into the sustainability implementation process. It complements existing literature on sustainability accounting and accountability.

The purpose of this paper is to review three international frameworks, including the International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED), in relation to one country’s higher professional and vocational education system.

The frameworks were examined in the context of English higher work-related education, and areas of mismatch identified. These were investigated to identify the extent to which they were due to weaknesses in the national system or to limiting assumptions contained in the frameworks.

Assumptions based on stages of education are problematic in the context of lifelong higher and professional education, while more open, lifelong-learning oriented assumptions can be too skeletal to aid comparisons between systems of initial vocational education and training. Particular problems are identified with assumptions contained in the ISCED that do not reflect the reality of professional education.

International frameworks need to take account of patterns of learning that take place outside of formal institutions and throughout life, but which lead to equivalent outcomes. Nevertheless, it is not adequate to substitute assumptions based only on the level of achievement.

The assumptions underpinning the ISCED in particular mean that equivalent achievements in different systems can be classified differently, leading to under-reporting of individual achievements, a lack of comparability in international statistics, and potential for policy distortion.

The paper builds on the work of Hippach-Schneider et al. by providing additional evidence, from a different national context, for issues relating to the ISCED in the context of higher professional and vocational education, and extends this analysis to the two major European frameworks.

To invoke Julian Le Grand's conceptual model of the interaction between human motivation and policy formulation in order to explain how motivational endogeneity in the university environment has distorted policy outcomes in the Australian higher education reform program.

Le Grand contends that changes in the perception of policy makers of both motivation and agency in the public sector have transformed public sector reform programs in the past two decades. However, because producers and consumers of public services react vigorously to different policy presumptions of their behaviour, a problem of endogeneity arises that may distort the intended outcomes of reform processes. This conceptual framework is applied to higher education reform in Australia from the so‐called Dawkins reform program in the late 1980s onwards.

Argues that the Le Grand model can shed light on the changes in Australian higher education that have occurred as a consequence of the ongoing reform process and account for at least some of the unintended negative consequences of the reforms.

The paper represents the first application of the Le Grand model to higher education reform.

The focus of this paper is on environmental protection, specifically within the context of green building at institutions of higher education (IHEs). One major reason why many IHEs are not undertaking sustainable building policies is the barriers to adoption. The lack of efficiency caused by these barriers to adoption of campus green building will be examined. The purpose of this paper is to identify the common barriers to adoption of green building initiatives at IHEs from multiple stakeholder perspectives and propose possible solutions.

The manuscript provides a general review of the lack of efficiency caused by the barriers to adoption of sustainable building policies at tertiary education institutions.

Campus sustainable building policies face various barriers to adoption of green building policies. Campus sustainable building policies face various barriers to adoption. These include lack of awareness among many stakeholders, incentives, champions, understanding of financial considerations, and occupant satisfaction. These barriers can be addressed through review of student perceptions, encouraging knowledge gains at larger wealthier IHEs, campus planning, offering financial motivations, employing a campus sustainability officer, and marketing green campus building initiatives. However, every stakeholder needs to be part of the collaboration and incentivized in order to reduce these barriers.

This manuscript should be helpful to campus community members as they are involved in crafting, implementing, and managing green building policies. As green building development is a contemporary issue among the higher education sector, this research should prove helpful to decision makers as it identifies barriers and solutions to these barriers. Furthermore, this research can assist practitioners when attempting to implement green building policies at their respective IHEs by helping them understand the barriers as well as potential solutions for these barriers to campus green building.

This general review uncovers barriers to green building in the higher education sector; a sector which historically is dearth on green building research. Furthermore, solutions are offered to address and overcome these barriers from multiple stakeholder perspectives within this sector.

This study aims to examine how government policies have influenced the governance paradigm of Australian public universities from a historical perspective. In doing so, it addresses current uncertainty on government-governance connectivity.

The study draws on Foucault’s concept of governmentality and governance and uses a developed framework of three constituents of governance to explore government–governance connectivity through a critical discourse analysis.

The findings reveal that government policies have influenced the three constituents of governance differently since 1823, resulting in three distinct governance discourses. In the third governance discourse, the findings reveal a deviation from policy directions towards corporate managerialism, resulting in a hybrid governance control environment. This scenario has arisen due to internal stakeholders continuing to be oriented towards the previous management cultures. Other factors include structural and legalistic obstacles to the implementation of corporate managerialism, validity of the underlying theory informing the policy directions towards corporate managerialism and doubts on the achievability of the market based reforms associated with corporate managerialism. The totality of these factors suggests a theory practice gap to be confirmed through further empirical research. There are also policy implications for policymakers to recognize the hybrid control environment and ascertain the risk the hybrid control environment poses towards the expected outcomes of corporate managerialism.

The findings are limited to a critical discourse analysis of data from specific policies and journal publications on higher education and a developed framework of constituents of governance.

The study is the first to examine government–governance connectivity in Australian public universities and also the first to introduce a three-constituent governance framework as a conduit to explore such studies. The findings contribute to the literature in identifying a theory-practice gap and offer opportunities for further research to confirm them.

The purpose of this article is to ascertain empirically to what extent we can quantify an occupational shift, where a new type of bureaucracy of organisational professionals is on the rise in tertiary educational institutions in New Zealand. Furthermore, the objective is also to present accountability as the prime factor behind the changes.

The analytical strategy of the study takes a point of departure in the distinction between occupational and organisational professionals in the public sector in general, and more specifically in tertiary education (TE). Based on these new categorisations, the authors have used various descriptive historical statistics (both national and institutional) to estimate changes over time.

The article finds, in line with some international research, that there has been a comparatively higher growth of organisational professionals in TE in New Zealand, and a significantly higher growth than in the private sector and in the overall public services. The authors hypothesise that this growth can be associated with accountability (both vertical and horizontal) as the dominant notion in TE.

This article takes a different approach than the existing literature on administrative intensity in TE by looking at occupational changes rather than changes in institutions budgets. This article also confirms some of the findings in the growing international literature on changes in professional roles.

To identify key factors that are contributing to vulnerability in business schools in Australian public universities and determine the degree of vulnerability exhibited by these schools.

Using a multi-criteria assessment (MCA) approach, a framework is developed to determine which business schools are most vulnerable to disruptions and uncertainty.

The findings show a lack of preparedness on the part of many business schools, particularly those relying heavily on international students.

The implication is that business schools in Australian public universities need to diversify revenue streams and continue to seek legitimacy through external stakeholders such as employers and international accrediting bodies.

This study presents an empirical perspective of business schools in Australian public universities and offers valuable insights for university leaders and policymakers.