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Intro -- Acknowledgements -- Contents -- Notes on Contributors -- Abbreviations -- List of Figures -- List of Tables -- Introduction -- The Chapters in Brief -- References -- Part I Dominant Political Agendas in European Higher Education -- On Principles, Europe and Higher Education: Reflections on European Higher Education as an Intersecting Normative Space -- Introduction -- Puzzle and Preliminary Definitions -- From European General Principles to European Higher Education Policy Principles -- Legal Perspective -- Policy Perspective -- The University Idea and European Higher Education Principles -- Looking for the University Principles in European Higher Education Principles -- A European or a Universal Idea? -- Conclusion: European Higher Education as an Intersecting Normative Space -- References -- Neoliberalism in European Higher Education Policy: Economic Nexus and Changing Patterns of Power and Inequality -- The System of Higher Education -- Higher Education Institutions -- The Academic Profession -- Students -- Conclusion -- References -- Juridification, Judicialisation and Judicial Activism in Higher Education: Views from the CJEU -- Introduction -- Debating and Redebating an EU Institutional Commonplace: The Court of Justice as the Engine of Ever Closer Integration -- The Court as a Focal Point for General EU Studies -- Underlying Disputes About Judicial Leadership -- Political Sensitivity -- Reasons (or Justifications) for the Court's Attitude -- Conjectures on a Recurring Controversy -- Multiple Tiles of the European Judiciary's Role in Higher Education -- Juridification -- Judicial Activism, Creativity -- Judicialisation -- The Room for Silence in Higher Education Policies -- Putting Tiles Together and the Sectoral Perspective -- Final Remarks -- References.

PurposeThe objective of this work is to demonstrate how the use of a business process management (BPM) methodology reinforced with the use of lean manufacturing (LM) tools and practices enhances information and documentation flows.Design/methodology/approachFor this purpose, a case study on a large wind blade manufacturing company is described, in which BPM and LM were combined to improve information and documentation flows associated to the process of quality inspections and quality controls.FindingsThe joint use of BPM and LM strongly contributed to the improvement of information and documentation flows. The BPM lifecycle can be used to guide the entire improvement process, while LM tools can be used to act at specific points with an emphasis in the process analysis and implementation phases. Thus, LM complements a BPM approach leading to significant process improvements.Practical implicationsThe results show that LM can be used to support some phases of the BPM lifecycle. Furthermore, LM can contribute to identify lean waste in information and documentation flows associated to quality management processes and help in the selection of methods and tools to support process improvements.Originality/valueThis study is one of the first reporting the use of LM tools and practices as complementary to the BPM methodology to support the improvement of information and documentation flows associated to quality management in a large manufacturing company. This research enriches the literature by presenting empirical evidence that these two continuous improvement approaches are not incompatible in their objectives and visions and can complement each other.

The main goal of a wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) is to comply with the treated wastewater (TWW) quality requirements. However, the assessment of this compliance is a rather complex process for WWTPs in the EU Member States, since it requires the integration of a large volume of data and several criteria according to EU Directives 91/271/EEC and 2000/60/EC. A tool for a comprehensive assessment of TWW quality in this context is herein presented. The tool's novelty relies on an integrated analysis of performance indicators (PIs) and new performance indices (PXs). PIs integrate the several compliance criteria into a single framework, supported by flowcharts for a straightforward assessment of TWW compliance by practitioners. PXs are obtained by applying a performance function to the con- centration values analysed in the TWW for discharge or reuse. PXs are dimensionless and the scale adopted (0e300) defines three performance levels: unsatisfactory, acceptable and good performance. The reference values proposed for these levels and for the PIs were based on the EU legislation. The PXs complement the information provided by the PIs. While the latter assess the plant effectiveness in a given year (i.e. the TWW compliance with the requirements), PXs tackle the plant reliability, i.e. they allow to easily compare the performance of different parameters over the time and to identify when the performance did satisfy or fail the pre-established objectives and the distance that remains to achieve these targets. The tool was tested in 17WWTPs and the most representative results are herein illustrated. ; 7 ; 2 ; 7p ; 146 ; DHA/NES ; Jornal of Environmental Management