GOVERNANCE REFORMS IN EUROPEAN UNIVERSITIES

Abstract

Over the last three decades there have been significant changes in governing higher education institutions in almost all European countries. Many new national higher education acts have been passed. Several reforms have had the key objective of enhancing the autonomy of higher education institutions; in some countries this has entailed changing the legal status of the institutions and their employees, and greater financial freedom. The timing and breadth of reforms differ across Europe. In Middle Europe, in the post-communist countries political changes drastically changed the higher education landscape in a very short period of time in the early 1990s, whereas in the Western European countries the reforms were implemented gradually. In my paper I summarize the most important changes in university governance in Europe.