Library: Education: Government, law and policy

Education policy

The RAND Corporation defines education policy as follows: "Education policy includes laws as well as processes and policies that educational organizations, local districts, states, and nations put in place and follow to achieve academic goals." The selection of websites on this webpage may be of help to you, in learning about education policy? The library catalogue is also a good place to search for books, articles and other sources about education policy.

Government

Department for Education (England)
The Department for Education (DfE) is responsible for children’s services and education, including early years, schools, higher and further education policy, apprenticeships and wider skills in England. DfE is supported by 18 agencies and public bodies.
Education Committee
The Education Committee is a select committee of the House of Commons in the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It checks and reports on the work of the DfE and the 18 agencies and public bodies that support the DfE, and the committee's publications, plus the government responses, are published on its website.
Digital Education Repository Archive (DERA)
The Digital Education Repository Archive (DERA) is a digital archive of documents published electronically by the UK government, UK Parliament (including devolved Assemblies), government departments, semi-official organisations (quangos) and think tanks in the areas of education, training, children and families. DERA is curated by University College London’s Institute of Education.
The Commonwealth
The Commonwealth is a voluntary association of 56 countries and its Secretariat works with member countries and partners to strengthen education systems and policies.
Eurydice
Founded by the European Commission and Member States, Eurydice provides information about and analysis of European education systems and policies.

Law

Legislation.gov.uk
The official home of UK legislation, revised and as enacted 1267-present. This website is managed by The National Archives on behalf of HM Government.

UK Parliamentary Papers This link opens in a new window
Full-text papers from 1688-2005 including Hansard content - fundamental to understanding current legislation, policy-making and the British political environment - you can find further content (1803-current) at Hansard Online.

EUR-Lex
EUR-Lex offers access to EU law, case-law by the Court of Justice of the European Union and other public EU documents .

Lexis+ UK This link opens in a new window
Legal information: UK and EU case law, UK and EU legislation and UK law journals.
IMPORTANT: Please note Lexis+ UK is licenced for education and research purposes only and cannot be used for University business.

Policy

Overton This link opens in a new window
Global coverage of policy documents on social, economic, education, healthcare and management themes. Overton provides reports, working papers, guidelines, blog posts, transcripts and other sources of information written by policy makers and think tanks. You can also use Overton to track the impact of individual academic authors and articles on policy documents.

Guides to searching Overton
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)
The OECD reviews the education and skills systems in OECD and partner countries, and assists in developing and implementing policies to improve them.
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization works with countries to design, implement and share successful education policies, plans and best practices.