How do universities compete? Introduction to the special issue

Bibliographic Data

ID4098601
AuthorsRaymond Bloch (0000-0002-8927-4002, Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, corresponding author), Alexander Mitterle (0000-0002-8991-7266, Universität Hamburg), Tim Seidenschnur (0000-0003-4688-4182, University of Kassel)
Year2024
Volume49
Issue10
Pages1701-1709
Publication date2024-10-02
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueStudies in Higher Education (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0307-5079 • E-ISSN: 1470-174X
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/03075079.2024.2395418
OpenAlexW4402009596
LanguageEN
Citations received8
References cited63

Competition in higher education seems ubiquitous. Universities today compete for values such as diversity and internationality in the same way as they compete for innovation, impact and employability. The meaning and perception of competition in higher education have changed substantially within the last decades. Competition today is imperative, attribute and action. It is detached from distinct frames – relevant in political science, sociology and economics alike – and both measure and goal in itself. Given the centrality and ambiguity of competition in higher education today, understanding how competition operates is central to grasping contemporary dynamics that reshape higher education. Against this background, the question ‘How do universities compete?’ relates to a constructivist perspective that critically reflects research frames on competition in two distinct ways. First, this perspective refrains from adapting comprehensive economic or sociological frames to higher education without taking the specificities of higher education into account. Second, such a context-sensitive view on competitions corresponds with attention to the level and form of agency competing organisations exhibit. Overall, the contributions in this special issue provide context-sensitive analytical frames that respond to empirically observable competition in higher education. The way universities compete depends on contextual factors of how competition is organised, the role of intermediaries as well as the interrelationship between state agency and organisational self-perceptions as acting organisations. Initially directed at increasing efficiency, competition is characterised nowadays by a wide range of intended and unintended effects that will be identified and discussed in this special issue

Economic growth · Economics · Higher education · Mathematics education · Pedagogy · Political science · Sociology · Higher Education and Employability · Higher Education Governance and Development · Higher Education Learning Practices · Psychology

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