LIST OF PANELS

Around Europe, higher education systems are currently subject to profound changes. Various socio-economic challenges, in particular the emergence of the knowledge society, demographic developments, sluggish economic growth, and increased competitive pressures, have stimulated an array of reforms to contemporary higher education systems. In view of convergence-promoting processes such as the Bologna Process and the spread of New Public Management, domestic HE institutions are increasingly subject to competing visions of how university systems and institutions of higher education should be governed.   We call for papers which address the tensions between pressures for change and historical legacies in higher education. The panel aims to advance the state of research on higher education governance on three fronts. First, participants are encouraged to develop systematic indicators to measure the degree and direction of policy change, e.g. regarding the institutional balance of power, funding, and personnel matters. For example, to what extent have higher education institutions become “marketized” and in what areas? How does current policy output match up with the historical foundations of higher education systems? Second, the panel aims to isolate factors driving policy change. Moving beyond the conventional assumption that Europeanization is the main catalyst, participants are encouraged to shed light on new underresearched explanatory factors, e.g. the financial crisis, rankings and domestic/international policy borrowing, student activism, or isomorphic pressures from supranational policy agendas. Third, the panel gives participants the opportunity to empirically trace such developments in country comparisons or “crucial case studies”, while focusing on the transformed role of the state and new forms of governmental intervention. Papers shall provide an analytical contribution by developing indicators of policy change, potentially with reference to previous classifications.

Around Europe, higher education systems are currently subject to profound changes. Various socio-economic challenges, in particular the emergence of the knowledge society, demographic developments, sluggish economic growth, and increased competitive pressures, have stimulated an array of reforms to contemporary higher education systems. In view of convergence-promoting processes such as the Bologna Process and the spread of New Public Management, domestic HE institutions are increasingly subject to competing visions of how university systems and institutions of higher education should be governed. Previous research has shown that, amid demands for universities to “do more with less”, national policy makers are designing and embracing new models of governance and frequently transforming individual higher education institutions, the role of the state, as well as the socio-economic role and function of higher education. As a result of transnational pressures and domestic exigencies, national systems of higher education governance are – to a greater or lesser degree – being reshaped, transformed, and in many cases “marketized”. These changes are altering the role of the state in relation to higher education, heralding new paradigms for university management, and contributing to new forms of university-industrial relations. Despite these forces of change, higher education systems simultaneously remain deeply entrenched in their country-specific historical contexts, which profoundly shape not only patterns of interaction between key actors, but also the very role and function of education in society. This panel aims to address these very tensions between pressures for change and historical legacies. In doing so, we seek to advance the state of research on higher education governance on three fronts. First, participants are encouraged to develop systematic indicators to measure the degree and direction of policy change, e.g. regarding the institutional balance of power, funding, and personnel matters. For example, to what extent have higher education institutions truly become marketized and in what areas? How does current policy output match up with the historical foundations of higher education systems? Second, the panel aims to isolate factors driving policy change. Moving beyond the conventional assumption that Europeanization is the main catalyst, participants are encouraged to shed light on new underresearched explanatory factors, e.g. the financial crisis, rankings and domestic/international policy borrowing, student activism, or isomorphic pressures from supranational policy agendas. Third, the panel gives participants the opportunity to empirically trace such developments in country comparisons or “crucial case studies”, while focusing on the transformed role of the state and new forms of governmental intervention. Papers shall provide an analytical contribution by developing indicators of policy change, potentially with reference to previous classifications.