Into the Charmed Circle, or the Expansion of the Nonuniversity Sector of Higher Education in Western Europe

The rise over the past two decades of the nonuniversity sector is one of the less sung sagas of Western European higher education. This is not to say that the nonuniversity sector was without its significance. Far from it. One general and marked characteristic in the development of higher-educational systems in the OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) Member States and most particularly since the mid-seventies, is for rates of growth in the nonuniversity sector to have been higher than their more illustrious counterparts. A number of reasons account for this trend. It can in part be attributed to growing restrictions—numerus clausus in certain university fields that by a species of "cascade effect" forced less qualified students to opt for other types of establishment (Musnik 1978). The second trend, which is often seen as complementary to the first, has been the drive to "utilitarianism or instrumentalism"—a development some have associated with the "professionalism" of higher education (Bienayme, Cerych, and Neave 1985). A third possibility, and most especially in those countries such as the Federal Republic of Germany, the Netherlands, and Belgium, is that courses in their nonuniversity sector are appreciably shorter in duration compared to the classical university courses: three years as against five. This, in conjunction with the belief that programs with greater vocational content are of more value on the labor market, has often been held to account for the rising fortunes of the nonuniversity sector generally

Economic policy · Economics · European union · Higher education · Political science · Vocational education · Higher Education Governance and Development · Higher Education Research Studies · Law · Social Issues in Poland

• Short Cycle Higher Education

  Barry D Anderson, Barry Anderson•American Educational Research…•1975

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