Federal Strategies for Changing the Governance of Higher Education: Australia, Canada and Germany Compared

Over the last three decades there has been a significant governance shift in higher education in all Western countries. Previous governance modes have been reshaped by the continuous efforts of governments, concerned about the capacity of higher education to genuinely serve their respective societies. The efforts of such governments represent an ongoing process characterized by the adoption of similar policy tools (albeit assembled in different policy mixes) and by a clear strategic approach aimed at circumventing or overcoming previous governance modes and the inherited distribution of vested interests. This process of governance change has constituted a multi-level battle in which governments and certain other major policy actors (academic unions, university associations, students, business associations) have acted to pursue their own interests, through a complex, unstable process characterized not only by conflict, but also by agreements, bargaining as well as log-rolling, horizontal networking as well as hierarchical relations. This process is especially interesting in federal countries where the presence of two levels of strong government has rendered matters particularly complex. In fact, despite the fact that all federal constitutions clearly provide for the granting to the state of exclusive powers regarding higher education, federal governments have constantly operated regardless of said constitutional design.