How Growing Pressure to be Competitive at National and International Level Affects University Governance

Over the last few decades the growing autonomy of individual universities has been one of the crucial aspects characterising higher education systems in continental Europe. Famously different the situation in Great Britain, where university autonomy has always been an historical tradition of higher education. Whatever, all systems of higher education have been involved in the changing use of knowledge for social reasons (higher education as a social right) as well as for economic ones reasons (added value from research in the production of goods). As a consequence, individual universities have been more related to the local economy, so that therefore their autonomy has become more relevant. At the same time, all states have been compelled to cut back on financial contributions to universities, and in several cases link them to performance.