Over the last 10 years, the regular functioning of Greek universities has been disrupted several times due to various reforming governmental efforts by major Greek political parties. Actors inside (academics, students) and outside (policy-makers and analysts, experts, journalists) university resist the implementation of certain European education policies, such as the establishment of a quality assurance mechanism, at a national level. In order to analyse this resistance the advocacy coalition theoretical framework, developed by Sabatier and Jenkins-Smith, is used. Therefore, Greek universities are considered as a policy subsystem where actors, inside or outside universities, form coalition networks that share policy core beliefs and values, engaging in coordinated action in order to translate these into public policy. The beliefs of the key actors presented here are derived mainly through semi-structured interviews but also through the analysis of the parliamentary proceedings, articles published in scientific magazines and the press and specialised material posted on the internet. This article investigates and analyses the intense process that led to a policy change in the subsystem with the establishment and implementation of an institutionalised quality assurance system. Evaluation and university: from local reality to the international discourseThe debate about the need for the establishment of an evaluation system on Greek higher education triggered intense conversation and conflict for almost two decades. On the one side, Greek governments tried to promote evaluation policies for universities, shaped along and in coordination with the international and supranational level. On the other side, a considerable part of the university community resisted the establishment and implementation of these policies.

In this paper the role of validation and recognition of non-formal and informal learning, focusing on work-based learning (WBL) is examined. The paper is based on the analysis of EU and international organizations policy documents related to developments in the areas of Lifelong Learning and the development of learning processes through WBL. In the first section, a general overview of the wider condition of the society and economy and the necessity of the discussion on the paper’s theme take place. In the next part of the paper a mention of key points of the European policies on life-long learning with the focus of recognition and validation of non-formal and informal learning is been presented. In the third part, the section before the concluding remarks, the theme of Work-based learning, the development of necessary validation processes and the challenges are being analyzed.

Universities have existed and have been developing for many centuries. They have experienced many changes since they first appeared. Nowadays the university is experiencing massification and internationalization. It is therefore interesting to investigate whether concrete common beliefs and values concerning the university do exist in the academic community. This article investigates, through a case study, such an existence among Greek academics during the implementation of a controversial university policy program. The research question, (i.e. the article's title) is answered through the elaboration of elements which emerged from the analysis of 35 semi-structured interviews with actors participating in policy networks that were activated during the processes of formation and implementation of the case study university policy program.

After the advent of the knowledge society there has been a lot of debate, among countries and supranational organizations, on the promotion of lifelong learning policies and cooperation policies on education and training issues. In this context, training policies and mobility programmes at all levels of education and/or training are high on the international political agenda.At the same time, it is well known that vocational education and training is inextricably linked to the labour market and undoubtedly to employability (Stamelos, Vasilopoulos, Kavasakalis, 2015). Within this broader framework, many policies and programmes have been developed and implemented at European level to defend this objective, with the most contemporary of them, Erasmus+. This article presents a case study of a students’ mobility programme.In detail, the purpose of this article is to investigate and analyse the participating students’ views in individual mobility actions under the Erasmus+ programme in secondary vocational education in theprefectureofPreveza, regarding the effectiveness in achieving the objectives set by the programme itself.The text is divided into two subsections. The first section analyses the most important parameters of the issue at European and national level, as well as the basic structures and actions implemented within the framework of the European Erasmus+ Programme, while the second presents the research methodology and the primary results extracted from the descriptive and statistical analysis of the research tool, i.e. the questionnaire answered by Erasmus+ participants after the mobility.