Higher education governance in France, Germany, and Italy: Change and variation in the impact of transnational soft governance

Abstract

There is a consensus that transnational soft governance has unleashed the forces of change in higher education. However, individual national HE systems are still anchored in country-specific regulatory regimes, which reflect national-historical, institutional, and cultural developments. Against this background, three crucial questions guide our study: How does the state react to transnational pressures for change? How is transnationally inspired policy change 'digested' by the preexisting country-specific governance structures? And to what extent have national HE systems converged on a common governance model? To address these questions, we conduct a multilevel comparative analysis of developments in Germany, France, and Italy. We first break down the concept of higher education governance into sub-dimensions and derive concrete policy indicators for three historically embedded governance ideal types. Drawing on historical institutionalism and institutional isomorphism, we explore how historical legacies and transnational communication have impacted policy pathways over the past 30 years. We graphically illustrate the policy trajectories using our 'governance triangles' , which encompass the balance of power between multiple actors, including the state and universities, university management and the academic profession, and external stakeholders.

Spatial Organization of the University Network: a European Case-Study

“…Vahstain who proved that the continental model is guided by the principle of free access to education while the Anglo-Saxon one is primarily based on a commercial nature and realized by marketing instruments [3]. Most researchers consider that such dissimilar characteristics arise from the role of the government in managing higher education and different levels of university autonomies [4][5][6].…”

The governance and standardisation of research information in different science systems: A comparative analysis of Germany and Italy

“…In sum, while Italian and German HEIs display similarities with regard to the relevance of block funding, the degree of differentiation within the Higher Education system and the gradual introduction of NPM reforms, they differ with regard to: (a) the governance structure (decentralised vs. centralised; see Agasisti & Pohl, ; Biesenbender & Hornbostel, ; Dobbins & Knill, ; Lehmann et al, ); and (b) the mechanisms, dynamics and processes of RI standardisation (direct vs. indirect standardisation).…”

“…Interestingly, implementation of the RCD (which started in 2016) coincided with the science system’s move towards strengthened university management (e.g., through different forms of output agreements as part of an overarching ‘constrained marketization’ (Dobbins & Knill, , p. 72)) involving all Länder . One major policy example in this context is the so‐called excellence initiative ( Exzellenzinitiative )—a federal scheme to allocate additional research funding to selected universities based on a competitive selection procedure.…”

“…This paper tries to address this gap by suggesting a conceptual frame for the analysis of RI standardisation and by providing an exploratory qualitative case study of two diverse country cases (Seawright & Gerring, 2008): Italy and Germany. While the two country cases display strong differences with regard to the mechanisms, dynamics and processes of RI standardisation (direct vs. indirect standardisation), they have a number of structural similarities, which is why they have been repeatedly subjected to comparative analysis in the literature (Agasisti & Pohl, 2012;Dobbins & Knill, 2017;Lehmann, Meoli, Paleari, & Stockinger, 2017).…”

Resource Management of Higher Education Personnel

“…The research conducted in higher education regarding the management of education personnel as one of efforts to observe closer towards the performance of education personnel whose work and function are giving support in planning, actuating, learning process, research, and community service has been done several times [5][6][7].…”