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Tina Besley has edited this collection which examines and critiques the ways that different countries, particularly Commonwealth and European states, assess the quality of educational research in publicly funded higher education institutions. Such assessment often ranks universities, departments and even individual academics, and plays an important role in determining the allocation of funding to support university research. Yet research is only one aspect of academic performance alongside teaching and service or administration components. The book focuses on the theoretical and practical issues that accompany the development of national and international systems of research assessment, particularly in the field of education. In our interconnected, globalised world, some of the ideas of assessment that have evolved in one country have almost inevitably travelled elsewhere especially the UK model. Consequently the book comprises an introduction, eighteen chapters that discuss the situation in ten countries, followed by a postscript. It gathers together an outstanding group of twenty-five prominent international scholars with expertise in the field of educational research and includes many with hands-on experience in the peer review process. The book is designed to appeal to a wide group of people involved as knowledge workers and knowledge managers -- academics, students and policy makers - in higher education and interested in assessment and accountability mechanisms and processes.
