Exploring the determinants of higher education performance in Western Europe
A qualitative comparative analysis
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 7997680 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Giliberto Capano (0000-0003-3533-7407, corresponding author), Andrea Pritoni (0000-0001-9619-3641) |
| Year | 2019 |
| Volume | 14 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 764-786 |
| Publication date | 2019-03-12 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Regulation & Governance (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1748-5983 • E-ISSN: 1748-5991 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1111/rego.12244 |
| OpenAlex | W2921848361 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 9 |
| References cited | 65 |
As a result of domestic pressure or international prescription, many national higher education systems (HESs) in Europe have undergone structural changes over the last 30 years. These changes have been made primarily to enhance the overall performance – defined as students’ access, quality of teaching, and excellence in research – of universities. As such, almost all of these countries have decided to adopt similar policy strategies to foster institutional autonomy and differentiation, and greater managerial steering. However, although similar policy patterns have been replicated, performance indicators are remarkably variable across Western European countries. Thus, many of the proposed explanations may be oversimplifications of reality. This issue leads to our main research question: Which factors are associated with (teaching) performance improvement in HE? This paper focuses on university‐level education to explore the possibility that this association is conjunctural in nature. In other words, when considering the performance of university systems (i.e. teaching), it is important to identify the most effective combination of institutional autonomy, evaluation, internal governance, and public funding. Qualitative comparative analysis was employed to test this expectation on developments (1988–2008) in 12 HESs in Western Europe: Austria, Denmark, England, Finland, France, Greece, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, and Sweden. The results suggest that giving more institutional autonomy to universities is much less important than expected, whereas severe evaluation, generous public funding, and verticalized governance emerge as more relevant
Autonomy · Corporate governance · Economics · Excellence · Higher education · Management · Political science · Regional science · Sociology · Higher Education Governance and Development · Law · Political Influence and Corporate Strategies · Public Administration · Qualitative Comparative Analysis Research · Accounting
Variedades de capitalismo académico
Divergent pathways from autonomy to performance
Comparing Finnish and Chinese national teacher education frameworks from the teacher competency perspective
Impact of specific features of national quality assurance and higher education systems in the overall quality of higher education—A comparative analysis
What really happens in higher education governance? Trajectories of adopted policy instruments in higher education over time in 16 European countries
Academic freedom and creativity
Policy instruments at work
The revolving door in UK government departments
The regulatory state in developing countries
University Governance and Reform
Redesigning Social Inquiry
The Higher Education System
Education at a Glance 2016
Designing Public Policies
Designing for Policy Effectiveness
Regulatory autonomy and performance
University governance reforms
The governance and performance of universities
The study of organisational autonomy
Set-Theoretic Methods for the Social Sciences
Autonomy and control
Design Principles for Policy Mixes
Same Governance Template but Different Agencies
Higher Education Reform in Italy
Compliance with EU Legislation in the Pre-accession Countries of South East Europe (2005–2011)
The impact of state governance structures on management and performance of public organizations
Government Continues to Do Its Job. A Comparative Study of Governance Shifts in the Higher Education Sector
Do policy instruments matter? Governments’ choice of policy mix and higher education performance in Western Europe
From Bologna to Lisbon
Standards of Good Practice and the Methodology of Necessary Conditions in Qualitative Comparative Analysis
Accountability in Higher Education
Combining Federalism and Decentralization
Still Lost in Translation! A Correction of Three Misunderstandings Between Configurational Comparativists and Regressional Analysts
Evaluating Impacts of Performance Funding Policies on Student Outcomes in Higher Education
Performance Funding for Higher Education
Gold-diggers, supporters and inclusive profilers
The determinants of quality national higher education systems
Academic freedom, autonomy and accountability in British universities
Combining QCA and Process Tracing in Set-Theoretic Multi-Method Research
The Comparative Advantages of fsQCA and Regression Analysis for Moderately Large-N Analyses
Standards of Good Practice in Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) and Fuzzy-Sets
| Unique citing works | 9 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1,5 |
| Citation span | 2020 - 2026 (7) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 9 |