The new government strategy for higher education in the Netherlands: an analysis

In the Netherlands a new government strategy for higher education is emerging. This new strategy is presented by the Ministry of Education and Science as a development of more institutional self-regulation and a distancing of government from day to day higher education affairs. This article asks whether the Dutch Government is really allowing higher education institutions to become more autonomous. To answer this question two recent policy papers on higher education from the Ministry of Education and Science are analysed using a theoretical model of natural selection drawn from organisation theory

„U-Multirank“ und „U-Map” als Ansätze zur Schaffung von Transparenz im europäischen und globalen Hochschulsystem – Konzepte und Erfahrungen

Im Zuge der wachsenden Bedeutung weltweiter Hochschulrankings werden zunehmend \ud deren problematische Aspekte thematisiert – etwa ein sich ausweitendes \ud „reputation race“. Ausgehend von der Überzeugung, dass die über Rankings herzustellende Transparenz von grundlegender Bedeutung für verschiedenste Akteure im Hochschulbereich ist, widmen sich die Autoren den Projekten „U-Map“ und „U-Multirank“. Dabei zeichnen sie nach, welche notwendigen Gestaltungsprinzipien sich aus der Betrachtung des theoretischen Hintergrunds von Klassifikationen und Rankings sowie aus den Erfahrungen mit mehreren Rankings ergeben. Hiernach stellen sie dar, wie jene beiden „multi-dimensional“ und „user-driven“ Ansätze sich an den erarbeiteten Anforderungen orientieren, zentrale negative Effekte zu vermeiden versuchen, in komplementären Funktionen zusammenspielen und so einen Beitrag zur adäquaten Schaffung von Transparenz leisten können. Erste praktische Erfahrungen mit den beiden Ansätzen werden aufgegriffen

Changing balances in Dutch higher education

Like many other higher education systems in the Western world, Dutch higher education underwent profound changes during the last decade. In this article we will present an overview of these changes, and try to formulate an analytical framework that might be suited to analyze this process. In order to set the stage, we will begin with an overview of the Dutch higher education system, in which the broad structure is described, and some trends are presented. Next, an overview is given of the retrenchment and restructuring operations with which Dutch higher education was confronted during the last decade. Drawing, mainly, on public administration and political theory, we then attempt to formulate a framework for analysis. In this we focus on the Dutch higher education system as a policy network, and address the relationships that exist between the various key actors in the network: between government and higher education, among higher education institutions themselves, and among the different actors within the institutions, especially administrators and academics. In doing so, we hope to demonstrate that at all these levels some identical basic processes operate which to a large extent determine the outcomes of governmental policies aimed at changing the higher education system. Time and again the modern state stumbles over the academic system (Clark 1983: 137