The 1988 University Autonomy Act conferred Portuguese universities with a considerable degree of autonomy and designed a governance system based on collegiality. Strong participation of academic and non-academic staffs and students in decisions became the rule and democratic elections of all individual or collective governance bodies were the…

This paper aims at looking at governance instruments beyond managerial technicality. It intends to do so by analysing the impact of governance reforms on the universities autonomy assumed as a regulation instrument to politically steer systems and institutions. The regulation efforts undertaken at the European and national levels reflect a trend…

In 1995, Higher Education Policy published an issue dedicated to predicting what universities would look like in the 21st century. In this paper, we present a summary of those predictions made by leaders of higher education institutions and analyse how accurate they were in providing a vision of the future. The authors seemed to have guessed…

The main objective of this paper is to identify emerging changes in the values and norms related to governance and management in Portuguese higher education and to identify how different kinds of stakeholders perceive these changes. The University Autonomy Act (1988) and the Polytechnics Autonomy Act (1990) by transferring greater responsibility…

Given that higher education systems everywhere have opened to the masses, this paper analyses to what extent this phenomenon has really been accompanied by an effective democratisation of access and success in Portugal and Brazil. It looks at the expansion of higher education and discusses how the political system and higher education institutions…

Describes the triple crisis of the university as one of hegemony, legitimacy, and institution. It is necessary for higher education to be reinvented, and for academics to make the case for the new kind of higher education that responds to market forces while preserving the fundamental core values of the university. (SLD)

There have been calls to increase the autonomy of higher education institutions in Europe for a number of years. They have been counterbalanced by demands for increasing accountability and a European quality assurance system. In London in 2007, the European ministers of education decided to implement a European register of accredited quality…

Discusses how the relationship between governments and higher education has been changing in Europe over the last few decades, with governments using an array of market and market-like mechanisms instead of traditional regulation mechanisms. Suggests that despite the changes, institutional autonomy is still facing significant government…

The emergence of the market as a regulatory tool for the public sector and the promotion of competition among institutions are based upon the idea that they promote institutions' responsiveness to society and a more efficient use of public funds. However, autonomous institutions forced to compete under market-like conditions may follow strategies…

Discusses evaluation of higher education in Brazil, including the Institutional Evaluation Program of the Brazilian Universities (PAIUB) and its replacement by a National Examination of Study Diplomas. Describes background, early initiatives regarding quality, and the new governmental approach to quality evaluation (including the new political…