Jens Jungblut | University of Oslo (original) (raw)

Papers by Jens Jungblut

Studies in Higher Education, 2018

Apart from teaching, research and service to society, since 2015 higher education systems and ins... more Apart from teaching, research and service to society, since 2015 higher education systems and institutions in Europe have faced an additional expectation – to respond to the largely unexpected yet nevertheless growing demand for higher education by refugees. This study explores system and organizational level responses to such environmental pressures in Germany and Flanders, both affluent systems, but different in terms of size, attractiveness as destination and the extent to which their languages are widely spoken. Relying primarily on document analysis and interviews, the study highlights three elements of policy dynamics: policy styles, main drivers, and extent of involvement of non-state actors. While, as expected, in both systems the dynamics were re-active, solution-driven, and with strong involvement of non-state actors, contrary to expectations both countries responded primarily in a bottom-up manner. The study provides a conceptual tool and a first empirical insight into this novel phenomenon.

Increasing reliance on market mechanisms in higher education is analysed both as one of the appro... more Increasing reliance on market mechanisms in higher education is analysed both as one of the approaches to steering as well as in relation to the consequences of markets for quality and accessibility of higher education. This article goes beyond the normative considerations of market elements as inherently good or bad and the economic theory-guided focus on freedoms of users and providers, by presenting an alternative conceptualization. The conceptualization adapted from studies of markets in other parts of the welfare state to the context of higher education is based on two dimensions: (1) who effectively controls production of certain goods and services and (2) how access to and funding of these goods and services are regulated. It focuses on interests of three main actors—the state, the users (students) and the providers (higher education institutions). This leads to six conceptually distinct markets, whose key characteristics are illustrated by examples from Denmark, England, India, Norway, Portugal and Serbia. The key message is that this alternative conceptualization allows identifying variance in marketization of higher education with regards to (1) which actors are empowered, (2) who are the likely winners and losers and (3) what might be the risks of introducing specific market elements in a higher education system. More generally, a more nuanced analysis relying on this conceptualization can potentially contribute to a deeper understanding of political and policy dynamics in higher education.

Party youth organisations fulfil two functions for their parties: They are a resource for future ... more Party youth organisations fulfil two functions for their parties: They are a resource for future party leaders and they aggregate the interests of young people within the party. It is essential to understand how they fulfil these tasks when we want to analyse the future of aging mass member party organisations. Our survey of local leaders in the German social democratic youth organization shows that leadership training starts already on the lowest level. These activists are dominantly male and have an academic background. Their focus is on typical youth interests and they seem to be successful in accumulating youth interests into the party. The youth organisation seems to fulfil its tasks very well, but the analysis shows that they mainly reproduce existing party structures and are not able to contribute to an opening process of the party.

This thematic issue introduces the multifaceted nature of contemporary public policy—its multi-le... more This thematic issue introduces the multifaceted nature of contemporary public policy—its multi-level, multi-actor, and multi-issue features—by using the case of higher education policies from around the world. To do so, this introduction first describes how higher education as a policy sector should be garnering far more attention from scholars interested in political, economic, and social transformation. A framework for identifying and accounting for how the ‘multi-s’ characteristics configure and re-configure public policy is then introduced. Next, this thematic issue’s contributions are summarised with highlights of how they bring to life the different ‘multi-s’ features. This introduction concludes with a discussion of what the proposed framework of the ‘multi-s’ offers to studies of higher education policy coordination. In so doing, the objectives of this thematic issue are to highlight what the case of higher education policy coordination offers to studies of public policy, and to initiate a dialogue between all social scientists and practitioners interested in the increased complexity of governing, producing, and using knowledge today.

Modern governments are increasingly faced with problems of policy coordination. However, coordina... more Modern governments are increasingly faced with problems of policy coordination. However, coordination does not come naturally to organizations as it demands overcoming institutionalized working modes. Thus, countries have to find ways to tackle these problems to ensure efficient provision of public services. This contribution focuses on a specific and complex case, namely policy coordination for higher education policy in federal systems. The main research interest is to analyse the way in which coordination bodies responsible for higher education policy in two federal countries, Canada and Germany, organize their activities. Through this the study contributes to the understanding of the relevance of policy coordination in multi-level and multi-actor policy-making environments as well as the particular institutions that are dedicated to this task. Both coordination bodies are found to have many commonalities. However, the persisting differences, which can be traced to constitutional surroundings, also stress the importance of local conditions.

German universities have traditionally been characterized as homogenous. However, recent policies... more German universities have traditionally been characterized as homogenous. However, recent policies such as the excellence initiative were supposed to introduce differentiation and incentivize universities to develop more specific missions. This study analyzes the mission statements of German universities using a quantitative content analysis. It focuses on the question, whether the mission statements of German universities can be clustered in different groups and if so, whether the membership in one of these groups correlates with a university’s success in one of the initiatives or other organizational characteristics. The results show that German universities today have somewhat differentiated mission statements focusing either on research or education. Additionally, half of the universities created significantly longer mission statements with more diverse profiles. However, the characteristics of a university’s mission statement are found not to be related to the university’s success in the excellence initiative, the Competition for Teaching Excellence or the type of institution.

This article focuses on the role of political parties for policy making, and it traces the develo... more This article focuses on the role of political parties for policy making, and it traces the development from party preferences over coalition positions to policy proposals. The main argument is that parties with more similar preferences agree on more encompassing sets of policies, and that if a coalition formulates a policy in its agreement the chances for a policy proposal are higher. However, the need to negotiate the coalition agreement with other parties mediates the influence of partisan preferences. The article is based on a qualitative content analysis of documents as well as expert interviews from three West European countries and focuses on higher education policy. The results show preferences of governing parties influence policy proposals also in situations of coalition government. Furthermore, coalition agreements are found to be central documents in policy making as they limit veto capacities and indicate where substantial policy change is likely.

Many studies analysing partisan politics assume differing preferences based on parties’ ideologic... more Many studies analysing partisan politics assume differing preferences based on parties’ ideological backgrounds without providing matching empirical analysis. This is especially true for specialised policy areas like higher education policy, which are often not included in large comparative analysis of manifestos, which often focus on core policies. Additionally, the limited existing literature addressing higher education focuses only on the re-distributive dimension of partisan competition. However, the main theoretical argument of this article is that in order to fully capture partisan dynamics, it is necessary to include a second analytical dimension, addressing the question how higher education is governed. Based on this framework theoretical expectations for partisan preferences of different party families are deduced. Subsequently, these expectations are tested using originally coded election manifestos and a qualitative content analysis for all relevant parties in four European countries (the UK, Germany, Norway and the Netherlands).
The findings show that parties do hold differing preferences which can be structured along two dimensions. While many parties fulfil the theoretical expectations, there is also a fair amount of variation within party families, which can be explained by pointing to the importance of institutions, their legacies and resulting constrains for the formation of partisan preferences.

Numerous studies focused on the linkages between the Bologna Process and system – as well as orga... more Numerous studies focused on the linkages between the Bologna Process and system – as well as organizational-level changes – implying significance of the process for higher education policy dynamics. However, what has been lacking is a closer examination of the political importance of Bologna for the different actors involved and whether this varies over time, space and types of actors. The present study investigates the changes in the size and rank of delegations of national governments and European stakeholder organizations to the Bologna ministerial conferences in order to assess Bologna's political saliency in relation to (1) a more concrete interest in the actual European policy preferences for higher education and (2) an interest in the symbolic aspect of European policy coordination in higher education. The results suggest that the Bologna Process is primarily losing political appeal for the national governments of European Union (EU) members, while for the EU candidates and potential members as well as for the European stakeholder organizations it remains politically salient.

country study visit report, European Students' Unions, at the invitation and support of OSCE Offi... more country study visit report, European Students' Unions, at the invitation and support of OSCE Office for Democratization in Yerevan 2008

Higher Education Policy

Using the seminal contribution by Gornitzka and Maassen on hybrid steering approaches in higher e... more Using the seminal contribution by Gornitzka and Maassen on hybrid steering approaches in higher education as a foundation, this paper offers three main contributions. First of all, an analysis is provided of how the concept of hybrid steering approaches has been used since 2000 in the higher education literature. Secondly, the paper delivers a theoretical underpinning for the existence of hybrid steering in higher education stemming from institutional theory and policy analysis. Thirdly, the paper deepens and broadens the concept of hybrid steering emphasizing the permanence of hybrids, their potential homogeneity and convergence over time. Furthermore, their relation to multi-level governance arrangements as well as interaction between global scripts and national filters is addressed. In the conclusion, several avenues for future research are offered.

European Journal of Higher Education

The study provides an insight into student perspectives on quality in higher education, using Har... more The study provides an insight into student perspectives on quality in higher education, using Harvey and Green conceptualizations as the point of departure, and exploring the linkages between the views on quality, the developments of the Bologna Process and related national reforms, as well as students' motivation for and expectations from higher education. Using the data collected in a survey of the student population in several European countries, the study shows that students have a multifaceted perception of quality in higher education, very homogenous with regards to ‘quality as transformation/added value’ perspective, but rather polarized with regards to ‘quality as value for money’ perspective. Students seem to prefer perspectives that put them in the centre of the process, though not necessarily only as active participants and co-creators of the higher education experience, but potentially also as passive consumers. The results show some blurring of the boundaries between the more traditional Humboldtian and the consumerist views on higher education among students.

This article examines conceptually the role of political parties in higher education policy. It d... more This article examines conceptually the role of political parties in higher education policy. It discusses in how far political parties matter for changes in higher education policy, whether they offer different policy positions that might result in differing policy outputs and how one can conceptualize these differences. To do so, it develops a two-dimensional analytical framework consisting of one dimension that captures re-distributive conflicts and one dimension that captures conflicts over the control of the higher education system. To exemplify this, the article presents illustrative higher education systems and develops hypotheses about where different parties would ideally position themselves in relation to the framework. The article expands on these ideal positions by introducing different forms of path dependencies that might limit political parties and thus lead to a situation of constrained partisan preferences. Finally, it proposes a research agenda based on the analytical framework and the hypotheses generated from it. Overall, the article argues that political parties can be expected to favour different higher education systems and thus matter for changes in higher education policy.

This article analyzes the organizational development of freier zusammenschluss von studentInnensc... more This article analyzes the organizational development of freier zusammenschluss von studentInnenschaften (fzs), the national union of students in Germany from its foundation until 2010. It situates it within the variety of student organizations acting on behalf of students within the multi-level system of higher education governance in Germany. Starting out as a rather small, ideologically driven and a more network-oriented association fzs developed into a national-level umbrella organization with a more professional working structure. This institutionalization and professionalization – especially during the 2000s – can be explained by several important developments in the domestic environment in which fzs is embedded. The current diversification in German higher education governance, leading to the loss of influence of the federal level and growing diversity between the Bundesländer, together with increasing influence of commodification in the context of the Bologna Process, coincide with the decrease of impact and members of fzs after 2005.

Book sections by Jens Jungblut

Encyclopedia of International Higher Education Systems and Institutions, 2017

Synonyms: Supranational, national, and subnational structure of higher education; Sector-wise org... more Synonyms:
Supranational, national, and subnational structure of higher education; Sector-wise organization of higher education institutions
Definition:
The structure and organization of higher education institutions within a specific political and geographical setting.

Pathways through higher education research. A Festschrift in honour of Peter Maassen, 2016

Based on a typology provided by Manja Klemenčič, national unions of students can be conceptualise... more Based on a typology provided by Manja Klemenčič, national unions of students can be conceptualised as either student associations as social movement organisations, or student associations as interest groups. While the first group is characterised by loosely network-like organisations with limited sets of resources, the second is characterised by hierarchically ordered structures with strong centralised co-ordination. This chapter uses approaches from institutional theory to argue that student organisations with a network-like character that interact with the Bologna Process-inspired corporate-pluralist policy making and steering approaches on the national level might show characteristics of both types of student organisations. To illustrate the emergence of these hybrids the chapter uses the development of the German national union of students, fzs, as a case study.

Special issues by Jens Jungblut

You can access the special issue here: http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/rpas20/36/1

Blog posts by Jens Jungblut

In this thematic issue of Policy and Society (all contributions are openly accessible), we highli... more In this thematic issue of Policy and Society (all contributions are openly accessible), we highlight the multi-level, multi-actor, and multi-issue (the 'multi-s') nature of public policy using the case of higher education policies. We begin with an overview of how the global shift towards knowledge-based economies and societies has placed 'knowledge' at the core of contemporary public policy and policymaking. The governance of knowledge, however, is not a neatly contained policy coordination exercise: it requires collaboration across multiple policy sectors that may have previously experienced very little or less interaction. For example, we can think of a (non-exhaustive) list of relevant policy areas to include, such as higher education, research, trade, foreign policy, development, or migration. In our view, higher education policy coordination is thus permeated with respective sectoral concerns, with discussions taking place across distinct policy arenas, sometimes in silos, both inside and outside of formal government channels. While the above characterization brings forth the multi-issue aspect competing for attention in higher education policy coordination, we suggest that it also points to the presence of multiple actors: state actors from different ministries or agencies, representatives from universities and businesses, other non-state actors (interest groups, stakeholder organizations), as well as users of such coordinative outputs (concerned parents, students, as well as employers). As regular readers of this blog would recognize: the multi-issue and multi-actor features of higher education policy coordination often result in duplication, competition, inconsistencies, clashing priorities, and even potential bureaucratic and political conflict (Braun, 2008; Peters, 2015)—all symptoms of horizontal policy coordination challenges (Gornitzka, 2010). We can add to this observation the fact that actors involved in the design, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of higher education policy (Gornitzka & Maassen, 2000; Olsen, 1988) often operate, and 'shop' for better policy solutions, across several governance levels. While the rise of the regions—both supranational and subnational—in the higher education policy domain has garnered some academic attention (Chou & Ravinet, 2015; Jayasuriya & Robertson, 2010), this multi-level dimension of policy coordination needs to be brought into sharper relief. Indeed, international knowledge policy coordination stretches across many levels, including the macro-regional (e.g. European Union—EU, Association of Southeast Asian Nations—ASEAN), the meso-regional (Nordics, Baltics—bilateral or multilateral cooperation among states sharing specific geographical features), sub-regional (also bilateral or multilateral cross-border cooperation between distinct territories of different states), as well as the state/national (in federal systems), sub-national, and organizational levels (see e.g. Piattoni, 2010 concerning multi-level governance in the European context). In the introduction to this thematic issue, we present an analytical framework that would assist in identifying and studying the multi-issue, multi-actor, and multi-level features of contemporary policymaking and policy coordination. Specifically, we strongly argue that studying policy coordination in today's higher education sector requires unpacking the three distinct characteristics of this very coordination and addressing them separately from one another as an independent perspective and recognizing their interaction as likely to be responsible for the outcomes observed. In so doing, we call for analysing how the 'multi-s'

Studies in Higher Education, 2018

Apart from teaching, research and service to society, since 2015 higher education systems and ins... more Apart from teaching, research and service to society, since 2015 higher education systems and institutions in Europe have faced an additional expectation – to respond to the largely unexpected yet nevertheless growing demand for higher education by refugees. This study explores system and organizational level responses to such environmental pressures in Germany and Flanders, both affluent systems, but different in terms of size, attractiveness as destination and the extent to which their languages are widely spoken. Relying primarily on document analysis and interviews, the study highlights three elements of policy dynamics: policy styles, main drivers, and extent of involvement of non-state actors. While, as expected, in both systems the dynamics were re-active, solution-driven, and with strong involvement of non-state actors, contrary to expectations both countries responded primarily in a bottom-up manner. The study provides a conceptual tool and a first empirical insight into this novel phenomenon.

Increasing reliance on market mechanisms in higher education is analysed both as one of the appro... more Increasing reliance on market mechanisms in higher education is analysed both as one of the approaches to steering as well as in relation to the consequences of markets for quality and accessibility of higher education. This article goes beyond the normative considerations of market elements as inherently good or bad and the economic theory-guided focus on freedoms of users and providers, by presenting an alternative conceptualization. The conceptualization adapted from studies of markets in other parts of the welfare state to the context of higher education is based on two dimensions: (1) who effectively controls production of certain goods and services and (2) how access to and funding of these goods and services are regulated. It focuses on interests of three main actors—the state, the users (students) and the providers (higher education institutions). This leads to six conceptually distinct markets, whose key characteristics are illustrated by examples from Denmark, England, India, Norway, Portugal and Serbia. The key message is that this alternative conceptualization allows identifying variance in marketization of higher education with regards to (1) which actors are empowered, (2) who are the likely winners and losers and (3) what might be the risks of introducing specific market elements in a higher education system. More generally, a more nuanced analysis relying on this conceptualization can potentially contribute to a deeper understanding of political and policy dynamics in higher education.

Party youth organisations fulfil two functions for their parties: They are a resource for future ... more Party youth organisations fulfil two functions for their parties: They are a resource for future party leaders and they aggregate the interests of young people within the party. It is essential to understand how they fulfil these tasks when we want to analyse the future of aging mass member party organisations. Our survey of local leaders in the German social democratic youth organization shows that leadership training starts already on the lowest level. These activists are dominantly male and have an academic background. Their focus is on typical youth interests and they seem to be successful in accumulating youth interests into the party. The youth organisation seems to fulfil its tasks very well, but the analysis shows that they mainly reproduce existing party structures and are not able to contribute to an opening process of the party.

This thematic issue introduces the multifaceted nature of contemporary public policy—its multi-le... more This thematic issue introduces the multifaceted nature of contemporary public policy—its multi-level, multi-actor, and multi-issue features—by using the case of higher education policies from around the world. To do so, this introduction first describes how higher education as a policy sector should be garnering far more attention from scholars interested in political, economic, and social transformation. A framework for identifying and accounting for how the ‘multi-s’ characteristics configure and re-configure public policy is then introduced. Next, this thematic issue’s contributions are summarised with highlights of how they bring to life the different ‘multi-s’ features. This introduction concludes with a discussion of what the proposed framework of the ‘multi-s’ offers to studies of higher education policy coordination. In so doing, the objectives of this thematic issue are to highlight what the case of higher education policy coordination offers to studies of public policy, and to initiate a dialogue between all social scientists and practitioners interested in the increased complexity of governing, producing, and using knowledge today.

Modern governments are increasingly faced with problems of policy coordination. However, coordina... more Modern governments are increasingly faced with problems of policy coordination. However, coordination does not come naturally to organizations as it demands overcoming institutionalized working modes. Thus, countries have to find ways to tackle these problems to ensure efficient provision of public services. This contribution focuses on a specific and complex case, namely policy coordination for higher education policy in federal systems. The main research interest is to analyse the way in which coordination bodies responsible for higher education policy in two federal countries, Canada and Germany, organize their activities. Through this the study contributes to the understanding of the relevance of policy coordination in multi-level and multi-actor policy-making environments as well as the particular institutions that are dedicated to this task. Both coordination bodies are found to have many commonalities. However, the persisting differences, which can be traced to constitutional surroundings, also stress the importance of local conditions.

German universities have traditionally been characterized as homogenous. However, recent policies... more German universities have traditionally been characterized as homogenous. However, recent policies such as the excellence initiative were supposed to introduce differentiation and incentivize universities to develop more specific missions. This study analyzes the mission statements of German universities using a quantitative content analysis. It focuses on the question, whether the mission statements of German universities can be clustered in different groups and if so, whether the membership in one of these groups correlates with a university’s success in one of the initiatives or other organizational characteristics. The results show that German universities today have somewhat differentiated mission statements focusing either on research or education. Additionally, half of the universities created significantly longer mission statements with more diverse profiles. However, the characteristics of a university’s mission statement are found not to be related to the university’s success in the excellence initiative, the Competition for Teaching Excellence or the type of institution.

This article focuses on the role of political parties for policy making, and it traces the develo... more This article focuses on the role of political parties for policy making, and it traces the development from party preferences over coalition positions to policy proposals. The main argument is that parties with more similar preferences agree on more encompassing sets of policies, and that if a coalition formulates a policy in its agreement the chances for a policy proposal are higher. However, the need to negotiate the coalition agreement with other parties mediates the influence of partisan preferences. The article is based on a qualitative content analysis of documents as well as expert interviews from three West European countries and focuses on higher education policy. The results show preferences of governing parties influence policy proposals also in situations of coalition government. Furthermore, coalition agreements are found to be central documents in policy making as they limit veto capacities and indicate where substantial policy change is likely.

Many studies analysing partisan politics assume differing preferences based on parties’ ideologic... more Many studies analysing partisan politics assume differing preferences based on parties’ ideological backgrounds without providing matching empirical analysis. This is especially true for specialised policy areas like higher education policy, which are often not included in large comparative analysis of manifestos, which often focus on core policies. Additionally, the limited existing literature addressing higher education focuses only on the re-distributive dimension of partisan competition. However, the main theoretical argument of this article is that in order to fully capture partisan dynamics, it is necessary to include a second analytical dimension, addressing the question how higher education is governed. Based on this framework theoretical expectations for partisan preferences of different party families are deduced. Subsequently, these expectations are tested using originally coded election manifestos and a qualitative content analysis for all relevant parties in four European countries (the UK, Germany, Norway and the Netherlands).
The findings show that parties do hold differing preferences which can be structured along two dimensions. While many parties fulfil the theoretical expectations, there is also a fair amount of variation within party families, which can be explained by pointing to the importance of institutions, their legacies and resulting constrains for the formation of partisan preferences.

Numerous studies focused on the linkages between the Bologna Process and system – as well as orga... more Numerous studies focused on the linkages between the Bologna Process and system – as well as organizational-level changes – implying significance of the process for higher education policy dynamics. However, what has been lacking is a closer examination of the political importance of Bologna for the different actors involved and whether this varies over time, space and types of actors. The present study investigates the changes in the size and rank of delegations of national governments and European stakeholder organizations to the Bologna ministerial conferences in order to assess Bologna's political saliency in relation to (1) a more concrete interest in the actual European policy preferences for higher education and (2) an interest in the symbolic aspect of European policy coordination in higher education. The results suggest that the Bologna Process is primarily losing political appeal for the national governments of European Union (EU) members, while for the EU candidates and potential members as well as for the European stakeholder organizations it remains politically salient.

country study visit report, European Students' Unions, at the invitation and support of OSCE Offi... more country study visit report, European Students' Unions, at the invitation and support of OSCE Office for Democratization in Yerevan 2008

Higher Education Policy

Using the seminal contribution by Gornitzka and Maassen on hybrid steering approaches in higher e... more Using the seminal contribution by Gornitzka and Maassen on hybrid steering approaches in higher education as a foundation, this paper offers three main contributions. First of all, an analysis is provided of how the concept of hybrid steering approaches has been used since 2000 in the higher education literature. Secondly, the paper delivers a theoretical underpinning for the existence of hybrid steering in higher education stemming from institutional theory and policy analysis. Thirdly, the paper deepens and broadens the concept of hybrid steering emphasizing the permanence of hybrids, their potential homogeneity and convergence over time. Furthermore, their relation to multi-level governance arrangements as well as interaction between global scripts and national filters is addressed. In the conclusion, several avenues for future research are offered.

European Journal of Higher Education

The study provides an insight into student perspectives on quality in higher education, using Har... more The study provides an insight into student perspectives on quality in higher education, using Harvey and Green conceptualizations as the point of departure, and exploring the linkages between the views on quality, the developments of the Bologna Process and related national reforms, as well as students' motivation for and expectations from higher education. Using the data collected in a survey of the student population in several European countries, the study shows that students have a multifaceted perception of quality in higher education, very homogenous with regards to ‘quality as transformation/added value’ perspective, but rather polarized with regards to ‘quality as value for money’ perspective. Students seem to prefer perspectives that put them in the centre of the process, though not necessarily only as active participants and co-creators of the higher education experience, but potentially also as passive consumers. The results show some blurring of the boundaries between the more traditional Humboldtian and the consumerist views on higher education among students.

This article examines conceptually the role of political parties in higher education policy. It d... more This article examines conceptually the role of political parties in higher education policy. It discusses in how far political parties matter for changes in higher education policy, whether they offer different policy positions that might result in differing policy outputs and how one can conceptualize these differences. To do so, it develops a two-dimensional analytical framework consisting of one dimension that captures re-distributive conflicts and one dimension that captures conflicts over the control of the higher education system. To exemplify this, the article presents illustrative higher education systems and develops hypotheses about where different parties would ideally position themselves in relation to the framework. The article expands on these ideal positions by introducing different forms of path dependencies that might limit political parties and thus lead to a situation of constrained partisan preferences. Finally, it proposes a research agenda based on the analytical framework and the hypotheses generated from it. Overall, the article argues that political parties can be expected to favour different higher education systems and thus matter for changes in higher education policy.

This article analyzes the organizational development of freier zusammenschluss von studentInnensc... more This article analyzes the organizational development of freier zusammenschluss von studentInnenschaften (fzs), the national union of students in Germany from its foundation until 2010. It situates it within the variety of student organizations acting on behalf of students within the multi-level system of higher education governance in Germany. Starting out as a rather small, ideologically driven and a more network-oriented association fzs developed into a national-level umbrella organization with a more professional working structure. This institutionalization and professionalization – especially during the 2000s – can be explained by several important developments in the domestic environment in which fzs is embedded. The current diversification in German higher education governance, leading to the loss of influence of the federal level and growing diversity between the Bundesländer, together with increasing influence of commodification in the context of the Bologna Process, coincide with the decrease of impact and members of fzs after 2005.

Encyclopedia of International Higher Education Systems and Institutions, 2017

Synonyms: Supranational, national, and subnational structure of higher education; Sector-wise org... more Synonyms:
Supranational, national, and subnational structure of higher education; Sector-wise organization of higher education institutions
Definition:
The structure and organization of higher education institutions within a specific political and geographical setting.

Pathways through higher education research. A Festschrift in honour of Peter Maassen, 2016

Based on a typology provided by Manja Klemenčič, national unions of students can be conceptualise... more Based on a typology provided by Manja Klemenčič, national unions of students can be conceptualised as either student associations as social movement organisations, or student associations as interest groups. While the first group is characterised by loosely network-like organisations with limited sets of resources, the second is characterised by hierarchically ordered structures with strong centralised co-ordination. This chapter uses approaches from institutional theory to argue that student organisations with a network-like character that interact with the Bologna Process-inspired corporate-pluralist policy making and steering approaches on the national level might show characteristics of both types of student organisations. To illustrate the emergence of these hybrids the chapter uses the development of the German national union of students, fzs, as a case study.

You can access the special issue here: http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/rpas20/36/1

In this thematic issue of Policy and Society (all contributions are openly accessible), we highli... more In this thematic issue of Policy and Society (all contributions are openly accessible), we highlight the multi-level, multi-actor, and multi-issue (the 'multi-s') nature of public policy using the case of higher education policies. We begin with an overview of how the global shift towards knowledge-based economies and societies has placed 'knowledge' at the core of contemporary public policy and policymaking. The governance of knowledge, however, is not a neatly contained policy coordination exercise: it requires collaboration across multiple policy sectors that may have previously experienced very little or less interaction. For example, we can think of a (non-exhaustive) list of relevant policy areas to include, such as higher education, research, trade, foreign policy, development, or migration. In our view, higher education policy coordination is thus permeated with respective sectoral concerns, with discussions taking place across distinct policy arenas, sometimes in silos, both inside and outside of formal government channels. While the above characterization brings forth the multi-issue aspect competing for attention in higher education policy coordination, we suggest that it also points to the presence of multiple actors: state actors from different ministries or agencies, representatives from universities and businesses, other non-state actors (interest groups, stakeholder organizations), as well as users of such coordinative outputs (concerned parents, students, as well as employers). As regular readers of this blog would recognize: the multi-issue and multi-actor features of higher education policy coordination often result in duplication, competition, inconsistencies, clashing priorities, and even potential bureaucratic and political conflict (Braun, 2008; Peters, 2015)—all symptoms of horizontal policy coordination challenges (Gornitzka, 2010). We can add to this observation the fact that actors involved in the design, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of higher education policy (Gornitzka & Maassen, 2000; Olsen, 1988) often operate, and 'shop' for better policy solutions, across several governance levels. While the rise of the regions—both supranational and subnational—in the higher education policy domain has garnered some academic attention (Chou & Ravinet, 2015; Jayasuriya & Robertson, 2010), this multi-level dimension of policy coordination needs to be brought into sharper relief. Indeed, international knowledge policy coordination stretches across many levels, including the macro-regional (e.g. European Union—EU, Association of Southeast Asian Nations—ASEAN), the meso-regional (Nordics, Baltics—bilateral or multilateral cooperation among states sharing specific geographical features), sub-regional (also bilateral or multilateral cross-border cooperation between distinct territories of different states), as well as the state/national (in federal systems), sub-national, and organizational levels (see e.g. Piattoni, 2010 concerning multi-level governance in the European context). In the introduction to this thematic issue, we present an analytical framework that would assist in identifying and studying the multi-issue, multi-actor, and multi-level features of contemporary policymaking and policy coordination. Specifically, we strongly argue that studying policy coordination in today's higher education sector requires unpacking the three distinct characteristics of this very coordination and addressing them separately from one another as an independent perspective and recognizing their interaction as likely to be responsible for the outcomes observed. In so doing, we call for analysing how the 'multi-s'