On Friday, October 27, at 2:30 PM., doctoral student Ton Van Weel will defend his dissertation 'Ministers with Macabre Courage. An explanatory study into the policy results of Flemish ministers regarding the program supply in higher education, 1988-2019’ in the Prof.dr. G. Berkhoff Hall in the Waaijer building of the University of Twente. In his doctoral research Ton focuses on the question To what extent the success of Flemish education ministers' policy initiatives aimed at the program supply of universities and universities of applied science can be explained by the type of policy and other factors. The study covers the higher education policies of seven Flemish education ministers during the period 1988-2019. In this survey 11 policy initiatives (cases) of these ministers were systematically compared. The policy initiatives that were examined focus on the program supply of universities and universities of applied science: six reduction initiatives (aimed at supply reduction) and five non-reduction initiatives (aimed at supply consolidation or expansion). The study uses qualitative and quantitative data, and shows that, contrary to general perception, that there was regular policy success. This includes difficult-to-implement reduction initiatives that often encounter significant political and social resistance.
Everybody is welcome to attend!
After the defense the PhD thesis will be digitally available at https://doi.org/10.3990/1.9789036558488
