This book provides a comparative analysis of the impact of 'soft Europeanization' on higher education governance in Western Europe. Using concrete indicators of policy change, it focuses on university reform in Italy, France, Germany and the UK to explore how historical legacies and transnational communication have impacted policy pathways.

Since the national process tracing of the HE reforms with a comparative perspective and multi-model analysis is rich and presents theoretical challenges to advance the field, I highly recommend Dobbins' and Knill's book to students and researchers in the fields of education policy, comparative education, and political science as well as policy-makers. (Marcelo Marques, Journal of Education Policy, Vol. 31 (1), January, 2016)

Autorentext

Author Christoph Knill: Christoph Knill is Professor of Political Science and Public Administration at the University of Munich. Previously he has held positions at the Universities of Konstanz and Jena, the European University Institute in Florence and the Max-Planck Institute for the Study of Societies in Cologne. He has authored numerous publications including Public Policy: A New Introduction (Palgrave Macmillan 2012, with Jale Tosun) and Environmental Politics in the European Union: Policy-making, Implementation and Patterns of Multilevel Governance (Manchester University Press, 2007, with Duncan Liefferink).

Inhalt

1. Introduction: Higher Education Governance between Historical Roots and Transnational Convergence Pressures 2. Theoretical Framework: National Higher Education Policies between Transnational Communication and Institutional Path-Dependence 3. France: More State, More Market and More Humboldt? 4. Italy: The "Outsmarted" State? 5. Great Britain: Policy "Doubling-Down" as a Response to Transnationalization? 6. Germany: From Humboldtism to "Constrained Marketization" 7. Comparative Conclusions