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12 - Governance Trends in European Higher Education

from Part III - Geographies of Governance

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 November 2020

By
Harry F. de Boer  and
Jeroen Huisman
Edited by
Giliberto Capano  and
Darryl S. L. Jarvis
Giliberto Capano
Affiliation:
Università degli Studi, Bologna, Italy
Darryl S. L. Jarvis
Affiliation:
The University of Hong Kong
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Summary

This chapter focuses on developments in governance in European higher education, with a focus on Western Europe. It presents an overview of the literature on this topic, including the various modes of governance as well as the changes in European higher education in recent decades. The chapter starts by describing different conceptual models used to address and analyse higher education governance. Next, it portrays general tendencies with regard to governance and shows that states have been delegating some of their powers to other levels in the higher education system in four directions: an upward shift to the supranational level, a horizontal shift to ‘independent’ agencies, a downward shift to the institutions (‘autonomy’), and an outward shift (‘privatization, contracting’). As a result of these shifts, often cited as a move from government to governance, the modes of system steering and coordination have become more complex and dynamic, including more stakeholders at different policy levels. The chapter then considers that governance configurations in European higher education not only have similarities, but also differ in various ways.

Keywords

Europevarieties of governancepolicy reformsconvergencedivergence
Type
Chapter
Information
Convergence and Diversity in the Governance of Higher Education
Comparative Perspectives
 , pp. 333 - 354
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

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