Owing to their common history, similarities in language and culture, long traditions in political collaboration and the shared Nordic societal model, an assumption is often made that the operational and regulatory context of universities is similar in the five Nordic countries: Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden. In this article, we…

Academic corruption in China's higher education institutions has become a serious issue in the last decade. This paper provides a critical discussion of the Chinese Ministry of Education's policy developments aimed to strengthen academic ethics and control academic corruption. It suggests that while the reactions of policy-makers to the apparent…

Changes in the governmental policies aiming at restructuring the Portuguese Higher Education system and institutions have been, over the last years, defined under the influence of New Public Management. External pressures induced by these reforms translate the attempts to create a new institutional environment particularly by changing…

The article analyses how steering and organisation of German and Norwegian universities have developed after both countries with Humboldtian university traditions introduced New Public Management-inspired governance reforms during the first decade of the 21st century. The article outlines different organisation ideals and values involved in…

The Humboldtian educational ideal is based on the idea of the unity of teaching and research in universities ("Einheit von Forschung und Lehre"). The role of the state, according to Humboldt, was to fund universities in such a way that their autonomy was maintained. Much has changed in the funding mechanisms of higher education systems since the…

During recent decades master's studies have mainly become professional, but in some countries, like Israel, they still are a stepping stone toward doctorate studies. Changes in that respect may however occur due to recent university marketization processes. Using Tel Aviv University as a case study, we focus on the executive master's programmes…

Evaluation and accountability are two of the most popular catchwords employed by higher education reformers in the Western world over the last 25 years. For 25 years governments throughout Western countries have been using evaluation and institutional accountability as policy tools to steer their university systems at a distance. From a…

This is a preliminary survey of the laws and statutes that determine governance arrangements for higher education systems as well as individual institutions in 24 countries of Sub-Saharan Africa. Following an overview of recent higher education governance trends within Africa, it describes the current range of practice and most common approaches…

This paper explores the nascent field of risk management in higher education, which is of particular relevance in Australia currently, as the Commonwealth Government implements its plans for a risk-based approach to higher education regulation and quality assurance. The literature outlines the concept of risk management and risk-based approaches…

In a knowledge intensive society, the research university is a key institution for social and economic development. Focused on the discovery of new knowledge and the development of the next generation of scholars, research universities are also becoming more international in focus. This article presents the Emerging Global Model (EGM) of the…

This article examines the challenges faced by a Portuguese technical university that is striving to develop its research base within a developing science, technology and higher education system. The paper identifies lack of resources, and also organizational factors, as particular challenges. These include faculty inbreeding, career structures and…

Australian Catholic University (ACU) has had a long-standing commitment to social justice and to engaging with the rest of the community, arising from its Catholic intellectual tradition and its creation from Catholic teaching institutions. As a university created in 1991 as part of a radical re-structure of Australian higher education, ACU has…

This article is a case study of Tsinghua University, one of China's most influential universities, which has special national significance and strong political ties to the state. Recalling three chapters in the past century of Tsinghua's history, this paper gives an interpretive understanding of how the intertwined relationship between academia…

The aim of this paper is to use agency theory as the theoretical framework for an examination of the government-university relationship and to assess the main strengths and weaknesses of the theory in this context. Because of its logically consistent framework, agency theory is able to manifest many of the complexities and difficulties that…

Higher education institutions take strategic decisions regarding their engagement with government policy, with choice of strategy structured by the character of the national system and notions of what is appropriate in given contexts for the institution. In this study a series of factors influencing institutional strategy in response to the higher…