LIST OF PANELS

This panel focuses on the political dynamics underlying higher education, research and innovation policies. Today, an increasing number of countries are characterized by or attempting to become what has been described as knowledge economies or knowledge societies. As a part of this process, the societal relevance as well as political salience of policies focusing on higher education, research or innovation is increasing. Moreover, as policy problems in other policy areas are becoming more complex, higher education, research and innovation policies are increasingly expected to deliver policy solutions to challenges such as battling climate change, finding vaccines for pandemic viruses or creating more inclusive societies. This process not only increases the importance of universities as the main organizations responsible for fulfilling these tasks, but also creates the possibility for other actors to enter the policy arena. These developments have led some scholars to characterize policy-making in higher education, research and innovation policies to be increasingly complex as it takes place in a multi-level, multi-actor and multi-issue environment (Chou et al. 2017). These new conditions for policy-making pose questions regarding the way in which policy is made in this area and what kind of policy-making dynamics can be observed.

In discussing recent dynamics in higher education, research and innovation policies, the panel focuses on three key aspects of policy-making. First, a focus on actors in the policy field is based on the observation that there has been an increasing diversity in the group of relevant actors especially as higher education, research and innovation policies become more important also for debates in other policy sectors. Second, these actors interact in different national policy-making structures, which themselves are objects to change due to governance reforms as well as shifting arenas in which higher education, research and innovation policies are debated. Finally, these developments also open up for changes on policy-making processes as actors have to navigate these structures to come to a desired policy outcome.

In this context, this panel focuses on actors, structures and processes in higher education, research and innovation policy-making treated either separately or in combination. Moreover, contributions use an international comparative perspective that allows highlighting both context-sensitive as well as more general aspects of policy-making dynamics in this policy field. Papers should be based on empirical analyses using either quantitative, qualitative, or mixed-methods approaches, and reflect also on the relevance of their specific results in a global perspective. Contributions can use different conceptual lenses form political science, public policy, public administration or related disciplines.

This panel focuses on the political dynamics underlying higher education, research and innovation policies. Today, an increasing number of countries are characterized by or attempting to become what has been described as knowledge economies or knowledge societies. As a part of this process, the societal relevance as well as political salience of policies focusing on higher education, research or innovation is increasing. Moreover, as policy problems in other policy areas are becoming more complex, higher education, research and innovation policies are increasingly expected to deliver policy solutions to challenges such as battling climate change, finding vaccines for pandemic viruses or creating more inclusive societies. This process not only increases the importance of universities as the main organizations responsible for fulfilling these tasks, but also creates the possibility for other actors to enter the policy arena. These new conditions for policy-making pose questions regarding the way in which policy is made in this area and what kind of policy-making dynamics can be observed.

In this context, this panel focuses on actors, structures and processes in higher education, research and innovation policy-making treated either separately or in combination. Contributions should use an international comparative perspective that allows highlighting both context-sensitive as well as more general aspects of policy-making dynamics in this policy field. Papers should be based on empirical analyses using either quantitative, qualitative, or mixed-methods approaches, and reflect also on the relevance of their specific results in a global perspective. Contributions can use different conceptual lenses form political science, public policy, public administration or related disciplines. Proposals for papers should include information on the conceptual approach, the empirical object of study, the methods employed as well as a reflection on the relevance for the panel.