The Canadian Journal ofHigher Education La revue canadienne d'enseignement supérieur Volume XXXIV, No. 3, 2004 pages 127-138 Book Reviews / Comptes Rendus Pratt, J. (Ed). Higher Education (2004). The 'Accreditation in Austria and Britain. Model': Policy Transfer in U K : S y m p o s i u m Books. I S B N : 1 873927 74 6 (Full details not yet available.) Reviewed by Joy Mighty, Queen's University. This book describes the radical changes that occurred with the introduction of the 1993 Fachhochschul a Fachhochschul Study Act (FHStG) that established sector in Austria's higher education system. T h e law allowed institutions, other than universities, to offer degree-level programs, thereby breaking the monopoly of the university sector as the sole provider of higher education. It also established the Fachhoschulrat, an independent and autonomous non-governmental agency, to approve courses and maintain quality f o r the new non-university sector. This accreditation agency was modeled on the Council f o r National A c a d e m i c Awards ( C N A A ) , the validating body that awarded degrees and other qualifications in the non-university, polytechnic system in the United K i n g d o m . It marked a significant departure f r o m the traditional Austrian approach to both higher education and centralized political control. Ironically, the adoption of the British accreditation model in Austria occurred at the same time that the model was being abolished in Britain. T h e book, therefore, examines the successful adoption of the accreditation m o d e l in Austria as a case of policy transfer f r o m one jurisdiction to another. / 128 Book Reviews / Comptes Rendus T h e book is edited by John Pratt, w h o has extensively researched the polytechnic experiment in Britain, and w h o was a m e m b e r of the external team of experts f r o m the Organization f o r E c o n o m i c Cooperation and Development (OECD) which conducted a review of the Austrian higher education system and supported both deregulation and the accreditation model. Pratt, therefore, brings an insider's perspective to the reforms described in the book. In Chapter One, he provides a synopsis of both the Fachhochschul policy and the accreditation model, and raises important questions about the implications of the Austrian case of policy transfer, not just f o r higher education but for public administration in general. For example, to what extent does the political culture affect the choice of the policy transferred? In Chapter Two, Pratt provides a historical analysis of the British model, f r o m the early 1960s with the introduction of the binary policy that established polytechnics as an integral non-university sector in the higher education landscape, to 1992 w h e n n e w legislation permitted t h e m to use the designation of university and unified the f u n d i n g and quality control m e c h a n i s m s for the whole of higher education. T h e detailed history of the British accreditation model, and in particular, the C N A A , allows readers to perceive it as a complex and constantly changing system developed f o r a completely different context than the Austrian higher education system into which it was eventually imported. T h e history of the C N A A also allows readers to analyze the benefits and disadvantages of the British accreditation model. O n the one hand, the quality assurance processes of the C N A A facilitated educational innovation and growth that helped the polytechnics and other institutions to m o v e beyond their subordination to the university sector and achieve autonomy and degree-granting status in 1992. O n the other hand, the C N A A experience cautions against narrow, prescriptive, and bureaucratic approaches that constrain institutions' ability to be innovative. Ultimately, the evolution of the C N A A ' s roles and functions, f r o m validation of individual courses to accreditation of institutions, suggests that over time such accrediting agencies must adapt their m o d u s operandi to fit changes in their environments. T h e study of the policy transfer of the British accreditation model to the Austrian context explores whether these lessons f r o m the C N A A experience have been learned. The Canadian Journal of Higher Education Volume XXXIV, No. 3, 2004 129 Book Reviews / Comptes Rendus In the third and fourth chapters, H a n s P e c h a r traces the history of the non-university educational sector in Austria f r o m 1969 to 1994. Chapter T h r e e describes the evolution f r o m a sector of advanced vocational education at the u p p e r secondary level to the successful introduction of a non-university sector, the Fachhochschul, at the post-secondary level. It explains the initial resistance against diversification of the system and the subsequent expansion, without diversification. Public f u n d i n g w a s unable to k e e p u p with the p a c e of expansion, and the g o v e r n m e n t ' s priority of fiscal consolidation, along with increased public dissatisfaction, and tensions b e t w e e n the education and g o v e r n m e n t sectors eventually paved the w a y f o r changes. M o s t importantly, Austria's desire to join the E u r o p e a n U n i o n raised serious questions about the compatibility of its educational system with those of other E u r o p e a n nations, most of w h o m already had a non-university sector at the post-secondary level. A comparative O E C D study about the d e v e l o p m e n t of the non-university sector in E U countries further contributed to a m o r e favourable climate f o r the establishment of the Fachhochschul. In Chapter Four, Pechar explains the political process b y which the accreditation m o d e l that had f e w e r experts supporting it b e c a m e the m o d e l of choice, w h e n questions arose about the f o r m the n e w non-university sector should take. In Chapters Five and Six, T h o m a s P f e f f e r chronicles the development of the Fachhochschul-sector and explains h o w the Fachhoschulrat worked. In its First D e v e l o p m e n t Plan f o r the n e w sector, the Federal G o v e r n m e n t established a m i x e d f u n d i n g m o d e l in w h i c h it contributed 9 0 % of the normative costs of running Fachhochschul programs, with the providing institutions contributing the rest. Since the government f u n d s were provided as l u m p sums f o r 4 to 5 year contracts in contrast to the annual allocations f o r universities, the providing institutions had considerable entrepreneurial f r e e d o m . T h e f u n d i n g m o d e l encouraged small-scale initiatives and n e w organizational f o r m s so that by 2003, the n u m b e r of institutions offering Fachhochschul-courses was the same as the n u m b e r of universities, although the total n u m b e r of students enrolled in the Fachhochschul-sector w a s m u c h smaller. T h e goal of the Second D e v e l o p m e n t Plan, introduced in 1999, was to expand enrolment. The Canadian Journal of Higher Education Volume XXXIV, No. 3, 2004 130 Book Reviews / Comptes Rendus W h i l e there w e r e other r e f o r m s taking place, f o r example, the University Organization Act in 1993 and the University Study A c t in 1997, in P f e f f e r ' s view, the Fachhochschul-sector has had an e n o r m o u s impact o n higher education in Austria. It rapidly deregulated the system and influenced universities to b e m o r e self-critical, innovative, and responsive. A s P r o f e s s o r Dr. Sigurd Hollinger, the administrator responsible f o r higher education in Austria, said of the university sector: " T h e speed of deregulation has increased. A n d it is easier to p e r f o r m deregulation given the e x a m p l e of the Fachhochschul-sector. It is n o w possible to convince the rectors' c o n f e r e n c e to replace the old G e r m a n system b y the A n g l o - S a x o n system. It has led to a t r e m e n d o u s c h a n g e of culture in the university s y s t e m " (p. 91). Hollinger was referring to the 1999 law that allowed universities to adopt the British m o d e l of B a c h e l o r ' s , M a s t e r ' s , and Doctorate degrees instead of the two-stage degree structure of M a g i s t e r / D o k t o r based on the G e r m a n model. Another law passed in 2 0 0 2 also allowed the Fachhochschul-sector to f o l l o w the British model, with the exception of doctorate degrees that remain the prerogative of the universities. T h e e x a m p l e of the Fachhochschul-sector also influenced the introduction of a n e w law f o r the accreditation of private universities and established an accreditation agency similar to the Fachhoschulrat. significant impact of the Fachhochschul-sector The m a d e Hollinger speculate about the unification of the entire higher education system: "In 5 - 1 0 years, I could i m a g i n e one board f o r the Fachhochschul-sector, the private universities, and the state universities alike. This is possible and w o u l d include an end to the binary s y s t e m " (p. 93). If this speculation w e r e realized, it w o u l d represent a further policy transfer f r o m the British w h o abolished the binary system in 1992, just as Austria w a s adopting it. Chapters 7 and 8 analyze the changes in the Austrian higher education system in terms of the key variables suggested b y the policy transfer literature: what, w h o , why, w h e n , and how. T h e Austrian case is described as an e x a m p l e of "inspiration." "For, what w a s transferred w a s not so m u c h an idea as an ideal" (p. 112). Instead of an exact copy, "the British polytechnic policy and the C N A A w e r e used as an intellectual (and political) stimulus to develop a novel policy and institution" (p. 112). T h e key actors The Canadian Journal of Higher Education Volume XXXIV, No. 3, 2004 131 Book Reviews / Comptes Rendus were top-ranking civil servants w h o , dissatisfied with the status q u o , were eager to c h a n g e the nature of policy m a k i n g and administration in higher education. T h e persuasive tactics that they used succeeded because there was already a changing climate toward the d e v e l o p m e n t of a civil society. In the final analysis, there is no single theory that accounts f o r the Austrian experience. Instead, the successful policy transfer can b e attributed to a combination of factors, including the robustness of institutions. T h e individual chapters in this book are very well written, each providing vivid historical details of the c h a n g e process it describes. Paradoxically however, this c o m m e n d a b l e feature detracts f r o m the b o o k ' s integration and coherence as there is m u c h repetition, particularly across the earlier chapters, in the narration of the historical process of developing the Austrian system. Although the b o o k ' s stated f o c u s is the accreditation model, this key concept is not defined until m i d - w a y through the b o o k (on page 70), and a full analysis of the policy transfer does not occur until the last t w o chapters. Despite these shortcomings, the book provides an interesting history of t w o similar yet different systems of higher education, and the unique w a y s in which one was inspired by and modelled on the other. It would therefore be of interest to scholars of public policy, as well as to educational administrators and historians. 4? M a z o n , P. M . (2003). Gender Admission and the Modern Research of Women to German Higher Education, University: 1865-1914. The Stanford: Stanford University Press. Pages: 297. Price: $65.00 U S D (cloth). Reviewed by Uli Scheck, Faculty of Education, Queen's University. M a z o n ' s study delineates the path taken by w o m e n to gain access to German universities during the fifty-year period prior to World War I. She explores the reasons w h y it was nearly impossible to envision the concept of a f e m a l e student in nineteenth-century Germany, traces the debate initiated by the w o m e n ' s m o v e m e n t that eventually enabled The Canadian Journal of Higher Education Volume XXXIV, No. 3, 2004