This paper offers a historical analysis of organizational identity development at a particular Dutch university, the Vrije Universiteit (VU) Amsterdam. Our analysis contributes to the discussion on what factors contribute to organizational identity maintenance and evolution. Whereas the literature suggests a rather straightforward development,…

As part of the efforts to globalize higher education in Indonesia, internationalization and multiculturalism are two globalization behaviors that have been promoted across higher education institutions. This study investigated both these behaviors through a qualitative case study analysis of four state universities in the country. The authors…

This paper explores the evolution of autonomy in Hungarian model-changing institutions, focusing on how reforms have altered governance dynamics. By examining both the university's distance from the state and the degree of self-governance of the academic community, the study employs property rights theory to analyse how governance rights are…

It is widely recognised that academic freedom and university autonomy in Turkey are currently under pressure. Many scholars have produced articles discussing the Turkish predicament, linking it to the recent authoritarian and populist turn of the country. This paper offers a different interpretation, arguing how academic freedom and institutional…

This article addresses the inadequacy of the universal approach to academic freedom, which fails to account for the extent to which academic freedom can be exercised. Instead of considering the fixed meaning of academic freedom, the article proposes a relational approach. One that focuses on the relation between academic freedom and the common…

This paper contributes to the analysis of impacts a university might experience with an increased degree of autonomy. Most autonomy studies have empirically considered the legal, political and financial relationships between state authorities and universities in different national contexts. Nevertheless, most of these studies focus on the changes…

Interrogating the White Paper 3 of 1997 which upholds academic freedom, institutional autonomy and public accountability, I make the case for justice through higher education using public accountability. I argue that the higher education system in South Africa is capable of fulfilling such a role in the context of extreme injustices but not…

This paper explores integrity dilemmas experienced by Russian academics in the context of building a world-class university. Interviews with professors and managers of major research universities in Moscow provide critical insights into the organisational and attitudinal incongruities generated by a coercive state--a challenge that Russia has been…

This paper conceptualizes intellectual dissent as a galvanizer of academic freedom in a post-totalitarian academia that is moving toward democratization. Drawing on the case of Ukraine, the analytical narrative describes difficulties in overcoming legacies in universities emerging from repressive rule that discouraged creativity, initiative, and…

In Georgia, the question of academic freedom emerged only after the country gained independence from the Soviet Union in 1991 and its universities could begin reckoning with a heavy past of ideological pressure, censorship, governmental control and top-down management. Despite official declarations of the right to academic freedom and its…

In this article we discuss recent university reforms aimed at enhancing university autonomy, highlighting various tensions in the underlying reform ideologies. We examine how the traditional interpretation of university autonomy has been expanded in the reform rationales. An analytical framework for studying how autonomy is interpreted and used…

The article introduces this special issue of Higher Education Quarterly in which results of a research project on "European Flagship Universities: Balancing Academic Excellence and Socio-economic Relevance" are presented and discussed. The Flagship project aimed at contributing to a better understanding of the relationship between…

This article chronicles the key challenges facing Ethiopia as it embarks on an ambitious, ideologically-driven and aggressive expansion of its higher education system in an effort to address its national goals of economic growth and poverty reduction. It is argued that the urge for higher education expansion has placed undue pressures particularly…

The implementation of the governance reform of Portuguese higher education has been developed under the influence of "new public management" resulting in the loss of collegial governance. Additionally, the need for meta-governance of the higher education system and institutions to monitor institutional performance against policy…

Numerous studies have addressed how state authorities and public funding bodies control, regulate, steer, supervise or oversee higher education institutions. There are fewer studies on how higher education institutions respond to the actions of the mentioned authorities. States have aimed at increasing the autonomy of higher education…