Tertiary Education for the Knowledge Society provides a thorough international investigation of tertiary education policy across its many facets – governance, funding, quality assurance, equity, research and innovation, academic career, links to the labour market and internationalisation.

Tertiary-education policy is increasingly important on national agendas. The widespread recognition that tertiary education is a major driver of economic competitiveness in an increasingly knowledge-driven global economy has made high-quality tertiary education more important than ever. The imperative for countries is to raise higher-level employment skills, to sustain a globally competitive research base and to improve knowledge dissemination to the benefit of society. Tertiary Education for the Knowledge Society provides a thorough international investigation of tertiary education policy across its many facets – governance, funding, quality assurance, equity, research and innovation, academic career, links to the labour market and internationalisation. The report presents: · an analysis of the trends and developments in tertiary education; · a synthesis of research-based evidence on the impact of tertiary-education policies; · innovative and successful policies and practices that countries have implemented; and · tertiary-education policy options. The report draws on the results of a major OECD review of tertiary education policy – the OECD Thematic Review of Tertiary Education -- conducted over the 2004-08 period in collaboration with 24 countries around the world. FURTHER READING A companion series - OECD Reviews of Tertiary Education - offers an in-depth analysis of tertiary education policies in each of the 14 countries which opted for a country review: China, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Japan, Korea, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland and Spain. www.oecd.org/edu/tertiary/review.

In many OECD countries, tertiary education systems have experienced rapid growth over the last decade. With tertiary education increasingly seen as a fundamental pillar for economic growth, these systems must now address the pressures of a ...