The Directorate for Education, part of the OECD, has just published reports on equity in education (“country notes”) for both Norway and Sweden as part of the OECD’s Thematic Review of Tertiary Education.  As these reports focus on equity in education, they give substantial room to the earlier stages of the education system:

• In Norway, special focus was given to the Norwegian PISA results, and places them in the context of recent policy developments, including the introduction of a national scheme for schools testing.


• In Sweden the team looked at a number of developments in schools policy, including the extensive arrangements for school choice which have been introduced in Sweden, and arrangements for the education of immigrant pupils.

However both reports do go into some detail about the structure and condition of higher education that will be expanded on in the final study. The reports can be accessed via the OECD Directorate of Education website.

The Thematic Review of Tertiary Education project, carried out by the Education Committee aims to examine how the organisation, management and delivery of tertiary education can help countries to achieve their economic and social objectives. Overall, 24 countries are participating in the project. While all participating countries produce background reports, only 13 have chosen to take part in the country review, with teams of reviewers undertaking and preparing country-specific analyses (“country notes”). The final comparative project report will be published in 2007.