The Translation of Partisan Preferences to Policies – Proactive and Reactive Policymaking in Higher Education Policy

There is a growing interest in political science and higher education studies in the role political parties play in shaping higher education policies. This contribution adds to this literature by combining research from both fields of study, focusing on political parties as one of the central organizations involved in shaping higher education policies. Based on the existing literature political parties are related to the way in which the state should exercise control over the higher education sector. Once they are in government these preferences can lead to policy changes in a country. However, party preferences from the same party family are found to vary between countries due to the influence of the existing institutional environment of the higher education systems that shapes the party competition. The proposed paper will take these different positions as a starting point and investigate further, what they mean in situation of government change.