Book contents
- Convergence and Diversity in the Governance of Higher Education
- Cambridge Studies in Comparative Public Policy
- Convergence and Diversity in the Governance of Higher Education
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Contributors
- Preface
- Abbreviations
- Part I Theorizing Governance in Higher Education
- Part II Systems, Processes, and Dynamics of Governance in Higher Education
- 2 The Regulatory State and the Labour Process
- 3 Systemic Governance
- 4 Institutional Governance
- 5 Capture and Drift in Emerging International Governance Arrangements
- 6 Understanding Convergence and Divergence in the Internationalization of Higher Education from a World Society Perspective
- 7 Convergence through Research Performance Measurement?
- 8 Accountability and Governance in European Higher Education
- 9 Towards New Models of Decision Making within University Governance in Anglophone Nations
- 10 Governance in Public and Private Higher Education in Europe: Patterns, Divergences, and Convergences
- Part III Geographies of Governance
- Index
- References
8 - Accountability and Governance in European Higher Education
from Part II - Systems, Processes, and Dynamics of Governance in Higher Education
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 November 2020
- Convergence and Diversity in the Governance of Higher Education
- Cambridge Studies in Comparative Public Policy
- Convergence and Diversity in the Governance of Higher Education
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Contributors
- Preface
- Abbreviations
- Part I Theorizing Governance in Higher Education
- Part II Systems, Processes, and Dynamics of Governance in Higher Education
- 2 The Regulatory State and the Labour Process
- 3 Systemic Governance
- 4 Institutional Governance
- 5 Capture and Drift in Emerging International Governance Arrangements
- 6 Understanding Convergence and Divergence in the Internationalization of Higher Education from a World Society Perspective
- 7 Convergence through Research Performance Measurement?
- 8 Accountability and Governance in European Higher Education
- 9 Towards New Models of Decision Making within University Governance in Anglophone Nations
- 10 Governance in Public and Private Higher Education in Europe: Patterns, Divergences, and Convergences
- Part III Geographies of Governance
- Index
- References
Summary
Although accountability is touched on in nearly every account of current higher education developments (HE), only a few HE scholars have attempted to further theorize accountability, its forms, implications, and practical significance. In this chapter, we attempt to advance the debate by focusing on European HE in the age of Bologna, international rankings, massification, and underfunding. We begin our analysis by addressing the manifold socio-economic forces which have put accountability centre stage in contemporary HE discourse and reforms. We then outline numerous state-of-the-art conceptualizations of accountability in general, and in HE specifically. Following the lead of Huisman and Currie (2004), we wish to move beyond normative statements and generalized descriptions by analysing the emergence of ‘accountability regimes’ in four large European countries — Germany (North-Rhine Westphalia), France, Poland, and Romania — with distinctly different paths of development in HE. The analysis allows us to identify cross-national cases of convergence and divergence in the emergence of accountability regimes.
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- Convergence and Diversity in the Governance of Higher EducationComparative Perspectives, pp. 208 - 245Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2020