Policy Mixes Over Time: Time and Sequences in Governance Reforms of Higher Education Systems in Europe

Over the last three decades, governments have recurrently intervened in higher education. Over time, significant changes have occurred in inherited national governance modes. In Europe, these governmental policies have attempted to abandon the inherited Continental governance mode in favour of an “autonomistic” mode because universities have been granted more institutional autonomy at various levels and intensities. However, institutional autonomy does not stand alone because governments have drastically reduced the use of the traditional direct command and control strategy in favour of leading from a distance based on national standards, procedures for monitoring and evaluation, criteria for financial rewards and changing internal institutional governance arrangements. This paper deals with this governance shift by focusing on those sequences of policy mixes adopted over time that 15 countries have followed while introducing the autonomistic mode of systemic governance. By analysing 25-years of policy developments, the paper will show how the same governance template has been adopted by different sequences in adopting policy instruments.