Getting into Varsity: Comparability, Convergence and Congruence ...

The authors of this volume are therefore to be congratulated and thanked for an enormously timely and high-quality contribution to the literature.

I personally never cease to be amazed by how little, in this supposedly globalised age, domestic education policy is conducted with reference to anything outside the country concerned. (And this is not a particularly English phenomenon, I hasten to add—it characterises almost all the countries I know.) When comparative practice is invoked, it all too often reflects myths about other countries’ successes and failures rather than complex reality. Or, all too often, it is the fruit of a 3-day overseas visit by a politician during which some idea has grabbed his or her fancy.

It is true that in-depth information on other countries written by experts with a comprehensive knowledge of their subject is remarkably hard to find. In the case of university entrance, however, this can no longer be an excuse. This volume presents a wealth of detail, wedded to clear analysis. It makes clear how common the challenges are and lays out alternative strategies, but it also demonstrates how deeply embedded university systems are in their societies and how any effective policies must recognise this. Scholars of comparative education (or health or politics) often note that the great benefit of comparative study is that it helps one understand one's own country better. This volume will be a great gift for any policy maker for that crucial reason. It will also, of course, be an enormously valuable reference point for students and academics.

Both the individual chapters and the editors’ synthesis emphasise the tensions among promoting access, maintaining university autonomy, and protecting standards and excellence. These tensions are indeed central to today's higher education, and the struggle to resolve them is complicated by yet another critical aspect of university attendance: education has always been, to a considerable extent, about sorting people out and selecting some of them for desired, and indeed elite, positions. Today, our would-be meritocratic societies treat educational attainment as the most legitimate selection mechanism on offer. Occupations that aspire to a high status demand university graduates; employers who want to select and hire people in a legitimate, challenge-proof way opt for formal qualifications as a screening mechanism; individuals without university