ABSTRACT Higher education in countries like Ghana faces significant challenges, including financial barriers, which usually hinder students’ educational progress and graduation rates. While some students usually rely on family support and personal savings, these resources are generally insufficient for covering all educational expenses. Although student loans have emerged as a beacon of hope to address these challenges, research on this topic, particularly in developing countries, has remained underexplored. This study, grounded in the Theory of Planned Behaviour, investigates the psychological factors influencing Ghanaian students’ decisions to utilize student loans and the impact on graduation rates. Data is gathered from 114 Ghanaian students using a purposive sampling technique. The analysis reveals a positive correlation between favourable attitudes toward student loans and intentions to use them. Subjective norms significantly influence loan decisions, while perceived behavioural control has no significant impact. Also, loan decisions positively correlate with graduation rates, suggesting loans can enhance academic persistence. These findings highlight the need for responsible loan programs to improve graduation outcomes and socioeconomic development.

ABSTRACT The article addresses the issues surrounding the importance and impact of ‘hinterlands’ in the construction of European higher education systems and in the formation of sectoral policy. It draws on studies of Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Norway, Portugal and the United Kingdom to illustrate different policy approaches and shows how in some countries ‘hinterland’ issues have been the major factor in the reconstruction of national higher education systems. It draws a distinction between the past, where policies were essentially based on the growth of student numbers, and the present, where the drivers are much more related to regional social and economic factors and, in some countries, to public good policies on equalising opportunities between deprived and affluent areas. It suggests that ‘hinterland’ issues are now central to how higher education systems are constructed. As a result, systems will become more complex to manage but that regional and institutional ‘bottom up’ determination may offer better prospects for innovation and flexibility in the face of societal change.

ABSTRACT Drawing on evidence from documents and semi-structured interviews with members of the Catalan system of higher education, this research explores how intermediary organizations (IOs) facilitate the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), conceived as a global policy framework, in local contexts. We observed that, despite the voluntary nature of SDGs-related policies, most Catalan public universities embraced the SDGs. Two contextual factors likely facilitated their effective engagement with this global initiative: first, the autonomy granted by regional and national governments to the higher education sector when it comes to social responsibility, and, second, the willingness and ability of higher education institutions (HEIs) in Catalonia to work with the SDGs. The key element added to these contextual factors was the collaboration stimulated by meso-level actors, namely Catalan intermediaries. The Catalan case exhibits a process whereby IOs effectively engage with HEIs, forging a platform for collaboration; in turn, this led the local government to delegate the task of promoting the SDGs to IOs. This paper contributes to the debate in global higher education policy-making as it discusses the policy implications of the involvement of intermediary actors in bringing global policy frameworks to local level.

ABSTRACT This study contributes one of the first explorations into how provincial governments shaped the WCU building discourse in tandem with universities. Using a resource dependence approach and insights from institutional isomorphism, it develops a conceptual framework with three perspectives (national government, provincial governments and ‘ministerial universities’) to understand the relationship between national policies and local authorities’ and institutions’ strategic adaptations. This study shows that there are variations in how quickly provincial governments and universities within them respond to national policies. However, provincial reports and institutional strategies exhibit isomorphism with the national goals in the model of goal setting and interpretation of WCU definition. China's national policies for building WCUs reinforce provincial governments’ and ministerial universities’ resource dependence on national government, leading to the adoption of similar goal-setting approaches. However, an ambiguous understanding of WCU definition also prompts the imitation of building WCUs strategies. The ministerial universities develop tailored development plans, reflecting their reliance on provincial governments for critical resources, in light of the variable development advantages and requirements of provincial governments. Hence, the tension of homogeneous goals-setting oriented towards the national standard and diversified provincial development needs in the building WCUs pose a great challenge to local innovative practice.

ABSTRACT Scholars assert that, worldwide, doctoral provision is increasingly characterised by accelerated scales of production, competitive funding, centralised administration, and interdisciplinary, cohort-based training. The situation in the UK appears to mirror this picture but scholars have long noted that national settings mediate the forms that broader trends take. We therefore examined the case of the UK’s social science doctorates, which have seen both marked growth and a range of policy changes, to explore the potential extent of alignment with these trends. Invoking institutional isomorphism, a conceptual framework which asserts how convergence can be driven by different factors, we interviewed senior staff at a range of UK HEIs to examine the activities and underlying rationales behind their social science doctoral provision. We were able to establish that, while there is a degree of isomorphism around their social science doctorates, this is a complex and uneven situation because different kinds of HEIs are subject to a varying combination of simultaneous and often conflicting forces. Our analysis highlights not only how the relationship between national policies and higher education culture can be fraught, but also how organisations’ individual positioning and history has implications for how they are able to act in policy contexts.

ABSTRACT China is an important player in global university ranking exercise. Nevertheless, existing studies have not adequately explored how the legitimacy of adopting university ranking outcomes has been chronologically established on Chinese soil. This paper attempts to fill this knowledge gap drawing on interviews with 37 stakeholders between 2003-2021 and an analysis of 2086 articles and reports published between 1984–2022 concerning university rankings. It first analyses the process of institutionalization of adopting university ranking outcomes in China, and discusses how the policy initiatives such as the ‘985 Project' in 1998 and the ‘Double First-Class' Project in 2016 intertwined with university rankings over the time and provide opportunities for establishing such legitimacy. Secondly, it analyses the mechanisms through which university ranking outcomes gain legitimacy, and suggests that interactions among the stakeholders are one of the key mechanisms, whereby the central government plays a pivotal role in legitimizing adoption of international university ranking results. Furthermore, we argue that the universities have responded actively to adopting the ranking outcomes and use them as strategic tools to achieve their own goals. As such, this paper sheds a new light on the impact of university rankings in China and beyond.

ABSTRACT The employment of graduates has become an important issue of policy direction and institutional consideration across the globe. Given this new development, this qualitative study explored the nature of graduate employment in Ethiopia by examining the profile of the labour market, employability patterns, policies, strategies and initiatives taken at national and sectoral levels. The findings revealed that while there are favourable policy directions, strategies, and initiatives towards addressing the challenges of graduate employment, current achievements leave much to be desired. In addition to strengthening efforts at the level of higher education institutions and employers, combating graduate unemployment requires a broader conceptualisation and coherent national employability framework that provides workable directions and sustainable strategies. It is recommended that the provision of appropriate solutions to existing challenges needs to be devised, delivered, and coordinated at all levels and with the required level of synergy and participation from all relevant stakeholders.

ABSTRACT The Master’s Loan Scheme in England was initially designed to support widening access to postgraduate education. However, the general increase in the average fees has posed a risk of reducing these schemes’ effectiveness in promoting social mobility, especially for debt adverse students. We use a multidisciplinary framework to build a model of postgraduate intentions to review the Fast Forward (FF) Master Scheme at the University of Greenwich in the UK. This framework underpinned the development of an online survey for this observational study. The results suggest that the FF allowed some graduates who, without the FF intervention, would have disregarded undertaking postgraduate taught studies (PGT) to consider studying for a PGT degree. Many of these graduates are from previously under-represented communities in the sector. We found that financial concerns could deter some students, but the intervention design allowed students to consider PGT study when they had a positive undergraduate experience. Alleviating the credit constraint may not be enough to widen access at the PGT level. Better information about PGT courses, more flexible delivery of PGT, and employment support, such as mentorship and work experience, and social and personal factors considerations could help widen access to PGT studies.