Thesis submitted to the Faculty of Commerce Law, and Management, School of Governance, University of Witwatersrand, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree Master of Management in Public Policy (MMPP), Johannesburg, South Africa 2019 / The notion of policy networks is an integral instrument of policy-making in democratic states. Significant policy challenges are deemed often too complex to be dealt with only through traditional hierarchal government structures. The notion of policy networks is used to analyse and evaluate policy processes and their outcomes. The knowledge gap that the study is dealing with is on the role and effects the interplay of power, cooperation and conflict has in the policy networks and the policy-making process. The aim of this study was to explore the interplay between power, conflict and cooperation in the free higher education policy network in South Africa. A dialectical approach to analysis of policy networks was applied to inform the conceptual frame used in the study. The methodology followed the interpretivist-constructivist paradigm, which then informed the use of qualitative methods in the study. A snowballing sampling approach was employed to identify the study participants. The study analysed the results by using a thematic analysis approach. Findings in the study confirmed that free higher education policy-making was happening through a complex policy network. This free higher education network was characterised by a dominance of power, along with high levels of conflict and cooperation among actors who tended to share the same interests. The presence of power, conflict and cooperation had an influence on the network’s structure, interactions, context and the policy outcome. The influence of power, conflict and cooperation demonstrated that there is an iterative and dialectical relationship between network structure, interactions, context and policy outcome. / XL2019

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This study has two purposes: (1) to document and analyze the centralization phenomena in China's higher education system and (2) to make suggestions to improve or modify the centralization of China's higher education system in light of the documentation and analysis. A major outcome of this study is an analysis of telephone interviews and secondary documents, and four recommendations are derived from this analysis. In this study four research questions have been investigated: (1) What relationship exists between the government and individual colleges or universities? What should this relationship be? (2) What kind of relationship exists between the Party committee and the university administration, especially the relationship between the university president and Party committee? What should this relationship be? (3) How much autonomy should the colleges and universities possess? (4) How should higher education institutions move from the centralization planning economy and adapt themselves to the market economy? Two methods have been employed in this study: secondary document analysis and telephone interviewing. The secondary analysis consists of information collection in both Chinese and American libraries, information evaluation, categorization, and analysis. The telephone interviewing has been used to strengthen secondary analysis. The interviews were conducted with 15 Chinese scholars who were studying in the U.S. at the time and who have either worked in China's higher education system for more than ten years or have assumed some administrative responsibilities above the department level in that system. The major findings of the telephone interviews and secondary analysis lead to the conclusion that the higher education system in present China is highly centralized and, according to the consensus viewpoint, should be decentralized in light of the four recommendations made in this study. / Ph. D.

歐陽敬孝. / 論文(哲學博士)--香港中文大學, 2002. / 參考文獻 (p. 248-270). / 中英文摘要. / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, MI : ProQuest Information and Learning Company, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Mode of access: World Wide Web. / Ouyang Jingxiao. / Zhong Ying wen zhai yao. / Lun wen (zhe xue bo shi)--Xianggang Zhong wen da xue, 2002. / Can kao wen xian (p. 248-270).

The Renovation Program - Ðổi Mới in Vietnam since 1986 have posed a puzzling policy question: why have some policy areas experienced radical changes while others have experienced only limited and incremental changes? This policy puzzle provided the focus for this dissertation in which a model of major policy change was developed to provide a new way of explaining the policy reforms in Vietnam over the past two decades. The model was developed based on three bodies of literature: (1) the most well-developed theories and models of policy change process created in the U.S and their application to the non-U.S policy contexts; (2) the Policy-elite model as an alternative to explain the policy reforms in developing countries; (3) critical and unique regime characteristics of Vietnam that play an important role in shaping the policy contexts for the policy processes and outcomes in Vietnam. Taken together, these bodies of literature provided the basic concepts and suggested potential causal mechanism of major policy change for a conceptual framework to build a major policy change model for Vietnam. The proposed policy model identifies four policy factors (stressor, leadership predisposition, change in policy image and consensus on the political priority) that need to occur at different stages of the policy process in Vietnam to make radical change happen. Owning to the unique regime characteristics of Vietnam, the model differs from other policy process theories and models in the way that it strongly emphasizes the role of the Communist Party and the predisposition to reform embraced by the policy elites in the process of major policy change. It also reflects the collective and consensus-based policy making style of the Vietnamese Communist Party and government in the transitional period of the country. The explanatory capacity of the proposed policy model was validated by four policy case studies in higher education, international trade liberalization, state economic sector, and legal reform in foreign investment in Vietnam. The empirical evidence drawn from the case studies has affirmed the usefulness and relevance of the policy factors and the causal flow embedded in the proposed model. Concretely, the two cases with radical policy changes witnessed the presence of all four policy factors and the processes of change followed the causal arguments of the model. Whereas, in the two cases without radical changes, the legacy of a Socialist state in Vietnam has impeded the significant changes in the policy image of the policy elites in respective policy domains. As the result, no innovative policy change alternative has been advanced to the agendas of the Vietnamese government, which in turn prohibited radical policy changes in the areas of higher education and state-owned enterprise over the past two decades. In the last chapter, the cross-case comparison has found that in all four cases, there have been strong stressors and the leaders of the Vietnamese Communist Party and government have felt great pressure to reform. The Party has shown the predisposition to reform in various guiding resolutions in the four policy sectors. Yet, in the cases of higher education policy on institutional autonomy and state-owned enterprise management policy, the lack of significant change in the policy image of the leaders has been the main reason for the absence of innovative policy change. In contrast, in the cases of international trade liberalization and legal reform in setting the level playing field for enterprises of all economic sectors, all the policy factors have occurred to produce radical policy changes in these two areas.

The general purpose of this study completed in 1999 was to create an accurate, documented description of the experiences of nine students, three faculty members and two administrators in higher education in Chile during the military government 1973 - 1990.A qualitative approach was selected as the most appropriate methodology to' complete the study. A variety of methods and data collection strategies were used. The major data collection strategies were interviews and reviewing of primary and secondary written sources. The interviews were used to collect evidence concerning interviewees' experiences, as well as their attitudes, and perceptions regarding the events that occurred in higher education during the rule of the military government 1973 - 1990.The researcher decided to use a judgment sample of interviewees from the population based on their knowledge about the topic and their willingness to share their knowledge and experiences. Geographical representation, position within the institutions, kind of institution represented, and gender were major the considerations at the moment of selecting the sample too.Thanks to the U.S.A. Freedom of Information Act, which established an effective statutory right to access by any person or organization to federal government information, the researcher found official information that allowed for triangulation of evidence.The findings showed that the changes the military government implemented through their modernization of the educational system did not follow the historical trend of educational development in Chile. Furthermore, under the military government, policymaking in higher education was circumscribed to autocratic arenas, which usually coincided with government policy. Education was utilized to serve the purpose of the government. The educational system 1973 - 1990 failed to serve those with special needs. Free-market policies profoundly transformed education from a right available to all, to a commodity available in varying quantity and quality according to purchasing power of individuals.The impact of military government on higher education during the military rule was notorious and huge. Even though they were destructive in some aspects the military government did good things for the educational system. The issue in discussion is the price that was paid. / Department of Educational Leadership

Thesis (doctoral)--Deutsche Hochschule für Vewaltungswissenschaften, Speyer, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references and webliography (p. 215-228).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Melbourne, Faculty of Education, 2004. / Typescript (photocopy). Includes bibliographical references (leaves.

Thesis (M. Ed.)--University of Hong Kong, 1990. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1970. / Typescript. Vita. Bibliography: leaves 257-262.