White paper

About: White paper is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 3852 publications have been published within this topic receiving 51169 citations. The topic is also known as: White paper & White papers.

South African higher education in the first decade of democracy: from cooperative governance to conditional autonomy

Abstract: This paper tracks policies in the governance of higher education over the first decade of South Africa’s democracy. The first democratically elected government of 1994 was faced with the formidable task of dismantling the structures of apartheid education. The foundations for a new policy were laid by a National Commission that reported in 1996, and advocated a philosophy of ‘cooperative governance’ by a wide range of stakeholders. However, the government’s formal policy, articulated in a White Paper and legislation the following year, established a more directive role for the state. Successive amendments to the legislation culminated in a National Plan for Higher Education in which the state plays a strongly directive role, and seeks to recast the higher education landscape through extensive incorporations and mergers. While there is a strong case for state steering of public education in a country such as South Africa, where urgent attention to key issues of economic development and social justice is es...

Transformation of transport policy in Great Britain

Abstract: The British Government recently issued a white paper on its future transport strategy. Its central precept is unambiguous: current trends in traffic are unsustainable, from the point of view of the environment, business efficiency, health, and the unfeasibility of providing growth in road capacity that would keep pace with predicted growth in traffic. Much of the policy logic in the white paper stems from the explicit abandonment of `predict-and-provide' as a desirable — or possible — strategy. This leads to a recognition of the importance of a co-ordinated approach to public transport, walking and cycling, together with policies aimed at reducing less necessary travel where possible; ensuring that the costs of congestion and environmental pollution are, as far as practical, met by those who cause them (in which the revenue from new pricing systems would be kept under local control and used for transport improvements); an emphasis on better maintenance and management of the road system rather than increasing its capacity; consideration of the effects on transport of other policies in land-use, health, education etc; development of institutional structures or contractual arrangements able to bring these changes about; and conditions in which people's everyday behaviour and attitudes may be in harmony with policy, finance and environmental constraints. These themes did not arise out of the blue following the general election in 1997. They evolved over many years, especially in nearly ten years of intense discussion connected with the previous two governments' recognition that the 1989 road programme (`Roads to Prosperity'), in spite of its size and expense, would still not be nearly sufficient to keep pace with traffic growth, as well as being environmentally damaging. The process of discussion and argument has not ceased with publication of the white paper. A very interesting feature of the current debate is that its central argument is widely (though not unanimously) accepted in the media, with great emphasis on the problems of implementation. The author argues that the policy shift is genuine and firmly grounded in research, though with a number of real problems in implementation, research and methodology that will have to be addressed.

Reforming the Mental Health Act

Abstract: The Government's White Paper,[1][1] Reforming the Mental Health Act ([Department of Health, 2000][2]), was published in December 2000. Part I describes the proposed new legal framework and Part II summarises proposals for high-risk patients.[2][3] The White Paper is a profoundly illiberal document

Cluster Computing White Paper

Abstract: Cluster computing is not a new area of computing. It is, however, evident that there is a growing interest in its usage in all areas where applications have traditionally used parallel or distributed computing platforms. The growing interest has been fuelled in part by the availability of powerful microprocessors and high-speed networks as off-the-shelf commodity components as well as in part by the rapidly maturing software components available to support high performance and high availability applications. This White Paper has been broken down into eleven sections, each of which has been put together by academics and industrial researchers who are both experts in their fields and where willing to volunteer their time and effort to put together this White Paper. The status of this paper is draft and we are at the stage of publicizing its presence and making a Request For Comments (RFC).

Lifelong learning as a lever on structural change? Evaluation of white paper: Learning to succeed: a new framework for post-16 learning

Abstract: The government's White Paper, Learning to Succeed: a new framework for post-16 learning, is here evaluated. The considerable strengths of the proposals ? replacement of the TECs with Learning and Skills Councils, the adoption of social partnership in the membership of the new Councils, the substantial increase in resource and a large number of specific measures - are briefly welcomed. A number of serious reservations are then discussed in detail - for example, the absence of a model of change, the over-riding concern to meet the skill needs of business, the overreliance on human capital theory and the continued dependence on exhortation as a means of increasing employers' investment in training. Findings from The Learning Society Programme are then used to question some of the central assumptions underlying the official model of progress. It is argued that endless technocratic reforms are more likely to foster conformity, compliance and control rather than emancipation, empowerment and the enhancement of ...