Excellence as a Policy Concept: A Comparative Study

The idea of Excellence has become central to higher education and research discourse, yet it appears to be understood, used and implemented in a variety of different ways by different policy actors in different national and transnational contexts. This paper will map out the ways in which excellence is used by examining policy papers and reports from the EU and a representative sample of member states, as well as the OECD and a handful of key non-European countries. Research questions include: What is currently meant by Excellence in different countries, funding agencies and research policies? Can we say something about when this concept was introduced in the context we investigate and why they started to use it? Which effects can be seen from this new focus on excellence (funding programs, CoE, other institutional effects, etc.)?