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Despite the mainstream technological approach of science in academic curricula, with its focus on specialisation, the Dutch history of higher education is an interesting example of an alternative development. The Vrije Universiteit of Amsterdam has declared in its mission statement a pedagogical ideal of “broad academic education”, oriented towards educating students to become “morally responsible and reflective scientists and professionals”. This paper describes a pilot study focusing on organisational dynamics, learning processes involved in value education, and the question of how a philosophical/ethical perspective on sustainability can be integrated into the curriculum. A critical evaluation of this pilot study suggests that students need more insight into the status of values as different from empirical facts.

Introduces the special issue on “Stories of transformation” in higher education (HE). Highlights that transformation in HE involves multi‐disciplinary and applied orientations to curriculum change, which break down the modernist dichotomy of theory and practice. Also highlights the significance of change processes that are value‐based and require the involvement of committed individuals and groups that are prepared to engage the often rhetorical nature of declarations and institutionalized commitments to sustainable development. Also highlights the absence of theorizing about change and action in institutional contexts amongst academics involved in transformation towards sustainable development in HE institutions.

Combining insights from the traditional literature on police culture with insights from the broader literature on organisational culture and on grid-group cultural theory (Douglas, 1970), the purpose of this paper is to introduce a new 15-dimensional framework of “organisational culture in the police” and test this framework via a survey instrument. This new conceptualisation is broader than the traditional police culture concept and allows for comparisons of the police with other organisations.

A newly developed instrument to measure the 15-dimensional framework, called the “Leuven Organisational Culture Questionnaire (LOCQ)”, was tested in 64 local police forces in Belgium (n=3,847).

The hypothesised 15-dimensional model is largely confirmed by confirmatory factor analysis. Assessments of between-unit variation show that the LOCQ is sufficiently sensitive to identify differences between work units in police organisations. The authors also find that traditional police culture characteristics tend to vary slightly less between units than the other characteristics. Also, there is less variation for characteristics related to police work (e.g. law enforcement orientation and citizen orientation) than for characteristics associated with the unit level (e.g. weak supervisory support and internal solidarity) or the organisational level (e.g. rule orientation and results orientation).

This paper expands the traditional “police culture” concept to a more generic and theory-driven conceptualisation of “organisational culture in the police”. The survey instrument offers a standardised way to map and compare culture within police organisations, and to compare it with the culture of other organisations both within and outside law enforcement.