Research on higher education policy in the United States often seeks to understand commonalities across state contexts to understand broader concepts influencing decision-making. However, this minimises the importance of abstract and distinct factors impacting policy processes within a state. While researchers in other fields attribute these…

This dissertation is about North Dakota's political structures and culture spanning the past 30 years through a case study approach examines the modern identity of politics that derive meaning into how policies are decided upon, and ultimately, the dynamics of those policies for the state's system of higher education. Individual interviews and…

The last 25 years have seen a dramatic shift in tuition fee policy in England. This paper uses Critical Discourse Analysis to understand the motivations behind policy setting, comparing the pivotal reviews undertaken by Dearing, Browne and Augar. It concludes that four themes may have influenced tuition fee policy making: national politics and…

The assetisation of education explicates a major shift in how the state understands education. Education is not only an immaterial public good available to everybody but can be treated also as a promotable group of assets. This article discusses the case of a certain period in the Finnish education export. The analysis shows how the Finnish state…

This article discusses the growth of neoliberal student activism in Brazilian higher education, considering the role of organisations called neoliberal think tanks. The following questions are addressed: why and how do these think tanks operate in the field of higher education? How do they articulate and promote student activism? The study…

Discussions about the role of universities have long been framed in terms of questions of what is good for the public, as well as how and whether higher education serves that good. Today, the language of 'societal impact' has become an accepted way for policymakers to frame the matter, but just who is included in the underlying definition of…

Global university rankings have reshaped the landscape of higher education (HE) across various parts of the globe. The intensified competition stirred by these rankings has significantly affected academic lifestyles. The quest for global university rankings has also inevitably increased the degree of homogenisation amongst universities. Given the…

The transformation of higher education provision by neoliberal values has been well documented. However, recent criticisms and even attacks upon higher education indicate a new politics extending beyond neoliberalism. This article draws on the sociology of conventions to unpick the distinctions at work in these new criticisms of universities. By…

Prior studies have documented the pattern of decreased state funding for higher education in periods of economic contraction (i.e., the balance wheel phenomenon). This qualitative case study examines how policymakers in California and Texas made decisions about funding higher education at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, when policymakers faced…

The paper examines Kazakhstan's decision to join the Bologna Process (BP), its implementation, and its impact on the higher education system in the country. Many post-Soviet countries have joined the BP, while many developing countries are also aligning their higher education systems with it. A diverse body of literature attempts to address the…

Taking the "Learning to 'tell Chinese's story well'" narrative prevalent in policies as a starting point, this article draws on data collected from a provincial university and delves into the institutional involvement and support in response to the state's international higher education policies. By foregrounding the underlying…

This volume provides an overview of the state of the art of research on the politics of higher education policy in Canada, the US, and Western Europe. Each thematic chapter combines an extensive literature review with original empirical work that further advances our understanding of policymaking dynamics in higher education. The book covers five…

The Republic of Moldova is located in a tense geopolitical environment between the European Union (EU) and the Russian Federation. As the EU and Russia have incorporated higher education in their foreign policy agendas, this article analyses (1) whether the higher education policies of the EU and Russia are in competition in Moldova and (2) how…

Sweden aspires to become 'the best in the world at utilizing the opportunities of digitalization' and is internationally recognized for its digital performance. Education has been identified as instrumental for the digital transformation of Swedish society, and efforts are made to accelerate the digitalization of the educational system. As…

In this paper, I explore the current state of higher education with particular--although not exclusive--reference to the issue of neutrality in research, revealing its ambivalences and contradictions. My main concern is less with the complex details of the politics of higher education than with the milieu of the dominant higher education…