This paper is a critical review of the Anglo-Saxon literature since the 1960s on university leadership and governance. The critique draws on a substantial amount of empirical work on operating procedures and governance in French universities. The intention is to show that the issue of university leadership has been analysed using too personalised, disembodied or normative an approach, and that the analysis of university governance has been too piecemeal. The alternative proposed here is a new definition of university governance to reflect its many facets, namely conflict/ co-operation between leaders, the interdependence of the many collegial bodies involved in decision-making, and the relations between leaders and representative bodies.

Over 50% of Portuguese graduates are out of work for more than six months after leaving university, against the OECD average of 42%. This suggests that universities need to do more to improve graduates’ chances on the labour market and, in many ways, the Bologna reform provided European Union universities with an opportunity to tackle this issue. This paper describes how the Bologna process led to reform at the Catholic University of Portugal’s Faculty of Economics and Management, starting in 2005. Undergraduate studies were reduced from four to three years and strategies were implemented to improve graduates’ employability. The primary aspect of the reform was a competency-based approach to curricula development, along with the creation of three new courses dealing specifically with transferable skills: critical thinking, systemic thinking and communication and teamwork.

Zambia has a huge agricultural potential, which is still largely untapped, and could play a key role in growth and poverty eradication. Since the early 2000s, the government has implemented important reforms to promote privatisation and trade reforms, leading to higher investment and a strong growth in export crops such as cotton and horticulture. Despite this success, agricultural productivity, especially for food crops, remains low. The study shows that public resources to the agricultural sector have drastically decreased since the early 1990s, while private sector providers have not stepped in to fill the void left by the government disengagement from input supply and marketing. Despite a strong government commitment to reverse this trend, budget figures show that the share in total allocations dropped again in the 2008 budget. The study also argues that evaluations of past donor interventions in agriculture are not very positive, especially in terms of their sustainability. Projects often paid little attention to local absorptive and implementing capacity, had too narrow a focus on production and food security, and lacked an adequate understanding of the socio-economic conditions and behaviour of the target groups. Lack of co-ordination resulted in duplications and insufficient scale. A new generation of donor projects emerged in the early 2000s, with a strong focus on commercialisation and the development of market linkages, especially via contract farming. These projects have borne good results in terms of production volumes, quality standards and access to international commodity chains, as well as farmers’ income. The key challenge for donors is to scale up these success cases and ensure sustainability. The implementation of the Joint Assistance Strategy for Zambia 2007-2010 is an opportunity to achieve a better division of labour, strengthen synergies on the ground and reduce transaction costs for government. Acknowledgements The Zambia

How young people use transport matters for society. Transport connects them to education, work, friends and other opportunities. Mobility patterns of the younger generation also matter for sustainability, economic development, liveability, health and well-being. Yet, young people’s views are rarely factored into transport policy explicitly. This report addresses the gap by reviewing young citizens’ travel patterns and behaviours, identifying their expectations regarding mobility and life opportunities and investigating their mobility-relevant experiences, capabilities and skills. To maximise the potential of youth, it is important that governments, communities, and other stakeholders ensure all young people have access to safe and affordable transport. It is also important to engage young people in the planning and implementation of transport initiatives so that their needs are met.

This paper uses data from PISA and the OECD Survey of Adult Skills (PIAAC) to examine the evolution of socio-economic and gender disparities in literacy and numeracy proficiency between the ages of 15 and 27 in the sample of countries that took part in both studies. Socio-economic disparities are exacerbated between the age of 15 and 27 and the socio-economic gap in proficiency widens, particularly among low-achievers. Gender disparities in literacy at age 15 are marked across the performance spectrum but are particularly wide among low-performers. However, by age 24 there is no difference in the literacy proficiency of males and females. The gender gap in numeracy at age 15 is quantitatively small when compared with the gap in literacy, although it is more pronounced among high achievers. The paper canvasses possible explanations for the trends observed and discusses implications for policy and practice, including the extent to which the lack of an established link between PISA and PIAAC limits the analytical value of the two studies.

The COVID-19 global health emergency and its economic and social impacts have disrupted nearly all aspects of life for all groups in society. People of different ages, however, are experiencing its effects in different ways. Based on survey findings from 90 youth organisations from 48 countries, this policy brief outlines practical measures governments can take to design inclusive and fair recovery measures that leave no one behind.

While policymakers are rightly concerned about evidence of rising income concentration at the top, it is often wrongly assumed that the same rich individuals stay rich. In reality, the membership of this group are in a state of constant flux. This new study, based on more than 20 million tax records over 10 years, examines the highest income earners in Ireland but also who moves up and down the income ladder over time. While income inequality has increased in most OECD countries, in Ireland it has been broadly stable for most of the income distribution. The top 10% of income earners receive 1/3 of total income and pay around 2/3 of all income tax. Unlike other OECD countries, the top 1% has not expanded its gross income share, partly due to long range downward mobility during the recession for those with the highest incomes. Moreover, more progressive taxation has also reduced the top 1 per cent’s share of disposable income. This paper finds that income inequality increases with age and differs dramatically across economic sectors – the difference between the top 1% and the median is greatest in the professional, financial and health sectors. In the professional sector for example, the top 1% threshold is 12 times the median compared to 3 times in the public sector. The share of employment in these sectors has grown contributing to greater income inequality but also higher upward income mobility. Indeed, the analysis in the paper shows upward income mobility is higher for those working in finance, professional and technical occupations and among the young, those living in Dublin, and those changing jobs. Finally, there is also evidence that economic mobility has declined among median income classes over the past 10 years in Ireland – relatively fewer workers are now moving up or down the income ladder than before.

Young people are among the most affected by the economic crisis as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. This brief provides cross-national information on young people’s concerns, perceived vulnerabilities and policy preferences. The results of the OECD Risks That Matter 2020 survey reveal that two in three 18-to-29 year olds are worried about their household’s finances and overall social and economic well-being, and an equal share thinks the government should be doing more to support them. However, only one in four young people are willing to pay additional taxes to finance better provision of employment or income support.