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Introduction
I am a higher education researcher, especially interested in higher education policy and governance. Topics of interest and expertise are: quality assurance & culture, internationalization, legitimacy & accountability and organisational identity.
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Publications
Publications (256)
Governments across Europe have implemented mergers between higher education institutions (HEIs) to reduce costs and to increase HEIs’ performance. However, few studies have empirically confirmed the efficiency of such mergers for faculty publication performance. This study addresses this gap by analysing a major reform in the Norwegian higher educa...
In this chapter, the authors outline what replication research is and explain why this could be a helpful tool to support the trustworthiness and credibility of (earlier) research findings. Replication research has received increased attention in the light of the so-called ‘replication crisis’: a series of studies in
psychology failed to reproduce...
Despite the fact that organisational values play a pivotal role within organisations and allow for a broad differentiation between universities, little is known about the organisational values universities select to pursue, and the factors impacting the selection of specific values. Therefore, we aim in this study to explore what type of organisati...
This paper reflects on the use of methods in higher education
research. My point of departure is that it appears that higher
education scholars – publishing their work in what we generally
see as the relevant higher education journals of our field – make
use of a limited set of methods. Whereas there may be good
reasons to select certain methods, t...
Regional cooperation in higher education has grown in recent decades due to political drivers and the increasingly salient role of knowledge in economies and societies. The term ‘regional cooperation’ in this chapter signifies the multi-directional and multi-level coordination of higher education collaborations that are mediated through the regiona...
The categories commonly mobilized to think about education have long been associated with the notion of the nation state and have functioned as obstacles, rather than resources, for our understanding of how globalization plays out in this particular field. In the last two decades, both social theory and comparative politics have attempted to overco...
This paper offers a historical analysis of organizational identity development at a particular Dutch university, the Vrije Universiteit (VU) Amsterdam. Our analysis contributes to the discussion on what factors contribute to organizational identity maintenance and evolution. Whereas the literature suggests a rather straightforward development, with...
This paper proposes an extension of the concept of organizational actorhood. This concept is very useful to understand contemporary higher education institutions, but it pictures these organizations as relatively passive, subject to normative pressures. The conceptualization lacks attention to dynamic agency of higher education institution. Using n...
Research on academic staff experiences with mergers in higher education points out that they often struggle with the change process. Reform appears to go hand in hand with uneasiness and even anxiety, but studies also report mixed results: part of those involved share concerns, others report positive experiences. This study on mergers in Norwegian...
Higher education institutions (HEIs) often function in an environment where various institutional pressures force them to position themselves on a national-international orientation scale in order to gain legitimacy in the eyes of different constituents with different expectations. Empirical insights, however, on how HEIs respond to these forces an...
Higher education institutions actively pursue transnational strategic alliances at the organizational level, but what are the rationales, pathways and benefits behind this pursuit? A systematic literature review in the Web of Science and Scopus reveals the majority of studies touching on this topic are descriptive, lacking definitions and theoretic...
In the sociology of education, opponents of deficit thinking would be seen as important change agents, potentially inspiring radical policy change aimed at reducing systemic discrimination of specific sociodemographic groups. That is, contestation of deficit thinking can in theory lead to its destruction. In this paper, we argue that contestation c...
This chapter presents the aims and ambitions of the book to cover a broad range of aspects in higher education research, relevant for a global readership and stimulating higher education research globally, to map out the potential directions of travel, being relevant but visionary, forward-looking and innovative. It considers the state of the art i...
This innovative Research Agenda critically reflects on the state of the art and offers inspiration for future higher education research across a variety of geographical, disciplinary and theoretical perspectives. It explores the impact of Covid-19, and the need to re-engage with the Global South and reconsider conventional paradigms and assumptions...
The article identifies current trends with respect to the governance and management of institutional performance in higher education institutions and discusses how recent developments in this area can be interpreted. It is argued that performance governance is changing with respect to the way performances are documented, measured and disseminated....
The claim that international collaboration is important is a truism. A myriad of reasons for cooperation is evident if one looks at existing cooperative arrangements. These may be motivated by an economic perspective (an efficient and synergetic use of human and technological resources, think for example, of large telescopes, particle accelerators,...
The Soviet Union fell apart a quarter of a century ago. Fifteen newly born countries started their independent development in 1991 and a formerly unified higher education system was divided up. The basic commonality of Soviet design at the beginning of the independent era and the dramatic transformations of the post-Soviet period serve as the point...
Despite increasing scholarly interest in the phenomenon of quality culture, the existing literature is largely silent on or ambiguous concerning how to realise such a quality culture. In this paper, insights from the field of socio-technical systems design (STSD) are used to explore how to enhance a quality culture. STSD seems to be able to add to...
In this research we attempt to empirically validate a model – using signalling theory – that explains important antecedents and consequences of students’ attitude towards internationally accredited business schools. Using a quasi-experimental design, we collected data from undergraduate students of eight countries across four scenarios. The results...
Much research has been done on students’ role and position within higher education systems and institutions. Different concepts have been developed and employed to offer a thorough account of students’ (shifting) ontological status. While they contribute to our understanding of the complexity of the students’ experience, existing concepts might lim...
The field of higher education research is fast-growing, both in number of publications and in geographical reach. There is however limited evidence on how this growth in publication influences the structure of the underlying co-authorship network. This is important as structural network parameters can change quickly in a fast-growing network, leadi...
The overall objective of the project the Future of Transnational Collaboration in European
Higher Education (FUTURETRAC) – commissioned by the Directorate General Education,
Youth, Sport and Culture and carried out by the Centre for Higher Education Governance
Ghent (CHEGG), Ghent University, Belgium and the Center for Higher Education Policy
Studi...
A growing literature addresses the experiences of international students in higher education. However, limited attention has been paid to how satisfied international students are with their educational experience (gown) and their non-educational experiences related to, e.g. culture, transportation, administrative matters and housing (town). This pa...
Market rationality, neoliberal approaches and ever-increasing productivity objectives are widespread in higher education discourse and practice. Academic employment has become more uncertain as scholars are more commonly employed on non-tenured, fixed-term contracts. Research shows the resulting detrimental impact on staff well-being and health, wh...
For several decades, higher education systems have undergone continuous waves of reform, driven by a combination of concerns about the changing labour needs of the economy, competition within the global-knowledge economy, and nationally competitive positioning strategies to enhance the performance of higher education systems. Yet, despite far-rangi...
Parallel to the increasing level of maturity of the field of research on higher education, an increasing number of scholarly works aims at synthesising and presenting overviews of the field. We identify three important pitfalls these previous studies struggle with, i.e. a limited scope, a lack of a content-related analysis, and/or a lack of an indu...
This paper offers a comparative study of national policies in nine countries in Europe, North America and Asia. The research focuses on whether and how national policies on student mobility address undesired consequences such as exclusion, the carbon footprint or economic inequality. The aim of the research is to enhance ethical and sustainable int...
Although a large number of studies have explored the main causes of gender inequality in academia, less attention has been given to the processes underlying the failure of gender equality initiatives to enhance gender representation, especially at the professorial level. We offer a critical discourse analysis of recently promulgated gender policy d...
In this explorative study, the translation perspective from organisational studies is taken to analyse how national accreditation agencies interpret the so-called European Standards and Guidelines (ESG) and adjust these to the domestic context. Additionally, the study investigates how review panels make use of the ESG vocabulary in their review rep...
Most studies on branding in higher education focus on external branding or image-building towards external stakeholders such as students. Internal branding is an underexplored topic, even though it should be considered as important as external branding. Internal branding is about achieving the necessary internal support for the external brand. Draw...
This paper addresses the puzzle of the unlikeliness of the implementation of elements of the Bologna Process agenda in Europe and post-Soviet higher education systems. Following mainstream policy science theories, the policy initiative would be qualified as “prone to failure”, but surprisingly many governments took up the challenge to develop regul...
Late entry into a market is an institution strategy that has been little researched in the context of higher education. The purpose of this research was to identify and analyse the different positioning and differentiation strategies adopted by late entry institutions to gain a competitive advantage. The sample consisted of seven campuses establish...
(source: https://eua-cde.org/reports-publications/809:doctoral-education-in-europe-today-approaches-and-institutional-structures.html)
This EUA-CDE report presents the results of an extensive and unique study on the state of play of doctoral education in Europe. Offering findings gathered from more than 300 institutions across Europe, it provides...
Purpose – Drawing upon organizational justice theory, we examine how perceptions of performance management fairness affect burnout and organizational citizenship behaviors among academic employees. Methods – Data from 532 academic employees from a university in Flanders (Belgium) was analyzed using structural equation modelling. Findings – Academic...
Higher education systems of small(er) countries may be less attractive to investigate, and it is likely that only a small indigenous research community is interested in and capable of researching such small systems. In this chapter, we map which studies have been carried out at the meso- and macro-levels of the Flemish higher education system since...
This chapter introduces the project that aimed at mapping the institutional landscape changes in higher education in 15 post-Soviet countries. The project takes the Soviet legacy as a point of departure and describes and analyses the important developments that took place with the fall of the Soviet system and the impacts these developments had on...
In higher education research, theoretical approaches stressing isomorphism dominate the discourse on how higher education institutions ‘behave’ in their higher education and research systems. We argue that research should address both instances of similarity and differences. Using theoretical notions from institutionalism and the branding/marketing...
Purpose
Although there is increasing insight in student engagement (SE) in higher education, there is limited insight in how students experience SE in a transnational setting. This study therefore aims to explore student engagement perceptions and transnational experiences. A model, derived from the literature, representing four student identities...
This open access book is a result of the first ever study of the transformations of the higher education institutional landscape in fifteen former USSR countries after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. It explores how the single Soviet model that developed across the vast and diverse territory of the Soviet Union over several decades has...
In contemporary higher education, stakeholder management is increasingly important given the growing number and complexity of stakeholder groups. Defensive stakeholder management (DSM), defined as verbal responses of universities to stakeholder criticism, is a largely neglected topic in the higher education literature. Drawing from a combination of...
The structural reform in Flanders, initiated shortly after the start of the new millennium, operationalised through the 2003 Decree on the structure of higher education (HE), revolves around closer cooperation (through the setting up of associations) between the two types of HE institutions in Flanders: universities and university colleges (hogesch...
The key questions in this chapter are: What strategy practices are actually in place at contemporary European universities? Is strategic action largely top-down, with much emphasis on design and execution of strategic plans? Or is strategic action much more characterized by an organic (bottom up) flow of events in which emergent strategies are key?...
This article explores the factors affecting the content of universities’
mission statements. We conceptualize missions as identity narratives, a
type of symbolic representation of an organization. Based on the
literature on organizational identity we argue that universities need to
address two major challenges when crafting their mission statements...
James E. Côte and Andy Furlong (eds) (2016) Routledge Handbook of the Sociology of Higher Education London: Routledge, 396 pp., ISBN 9781138778122
The study conceptualizes three distinct functions European initiatives have in national policy changes: providing a model (Europeanization), providing a communication platform (policy transfer) or providing a legitimizing label (enabling opportunism of domestic policy entrepreneurs). Building on the example of higher education policy changes in fou...
In the context of globalising higher education (HE) policies, there is an increasing interest among scholars in detecting patterns of policy change, including the rate and magnitude of policy change and the direction of change (convergence or divergence) This paper adds to that literature by comparing the pattern of policy change and by providing t...
This chapter starts with a reflection on what we know about structural reforms in higher education. Subsequently, the nature and types of the structural reforms analysed in this volume is explained. The cases are all European reforms in which governmental agencies played a leading role. The reforms aimed either at horizontal differentiation (e.g. i...
In this chapter, we will first provide a cross-case analysis, followed by the identification of critical elements of higher education reform, presented by policy stage. In doing so, we highlight the importance of the context in which these reforms unfold. We will conclude the chapter by offering a more general reflection on important aspects of (hi...
This report is the final result of the project ʹHow can one create a culture for quality enhancement?ʹ, commissioned by NOKUT, the Norwegian Agency for Quality Assurance in Education, in the autumn of 2015. The project sought to increase the knowledge base about possible measures to increase the quality of education at a national, institutional and...
In recent decades internationalization has risen to prominence in higher education institutions (HEIs). Scholars have identified several rationales for internationalization. There is however a lack of conceptual understanding and empirical evidence for which rationale(s) for internationalization are chosen by a given HEI and why. The goal of this a...
The transformation to a more market-oriented steering approach in European higher education challenges universities and other higher education institutions to consider developing branding or image management activities. The existing literature focuses either on the content or the style, but we argue that an integrated perspective is needed to fully...
This case study is part of the “Structural Higher Education Reform – Design and Evaluation” project, commissioned by the European Commission (EAC/31/2014). The main objective of this project – carried out by the Center for Higher Education Policy Studies (CHEPS), University of Twente, the Netherlands, and the Centre for Higher Education Governance...
Europe Direct is a service to help you find answers to your questions about the European Union. Freephone number (*): 00 8006 7 89 10 11 (*) The information given is free, as are most calls (though some operators, phone boxes or hotels may charge you). Front cover A stylistic illustration of structural reformers contemplating an excellence initiati...
In times when universities are becoming less self-evident, these organisations may be confounded in terms of which aspects of their activities and performances they should communicate with their stakeholders. A related question – central to our study – is how they communicate. This paper analyses the style of one particular type of communication: w...
Institutional diversity—the variety of higher education institutions within a higher education system—has been a popular theme
in higher education (policy) research. Despite the large amount of work, key challenges to a better understanding of institutional
diversity have hardly been addressed. We argue that particularly the problems of conceptuali...
Increasing participation in the Erasmus study abroad program in Europe is a clear policy goal, and student-reported barriers and drivers are regularly monitored. This article uses student survey data from seven countries to examine the extent to which student-level barriers can explain the considerable cross-country variation in Erasmus participati...
Branding of higher education institutions (HEIs) is an expanding area of research. The existing literature mainly draws on the strategic management perspective that argues that HEIs are pressured to develop brands which differentiate them from their competitors. Past studies, however, do insufficiently take into account that most HEIs are positione...
Earlier studies on stakeholder management in European universities focused on proactive strategies, that is, substantive organizational practices to establish and maintain mutually beneficial exchanges between universities and their stakeholders. We argue that the literature on stakeholder management has to be extended by theorizing defensive strat...
This chapter has two objectives. First, it aims to describe the nature of contemporary HE research and to assess its stability, fragility and ambiguity from the perspective of HE researchers. That picture serves as the background for meeting the second aim: to understand why and how HE experts (note the broadening from researchers to experts) are i...
This collection is an inside look at European Commission policy-making in education and the privatization of policy-making in the European Union. Along with contributions from leading academics in the field of European educational policy and policy-sociology, this book also introduces the 'absent voices' in the policy privatization debate: policy c...
The study of four comparable Canadian universities in Ontario, this article analyzed background documents from the government and the institutions, carried out site visits to the campuses of the institutions, and interviewed senior faculty and staff working in the area of internationalization. The main reasons for internationalizationparticularly...
In light of the recent higher education policy changes in the UK, a scenario study was carried out based on the Delphi-method exploring the longer term impact (2025) of the policies on English higher education. The two scenarios are briefly presented below.
The purpose of this article is to identify and discuss the possible uses of higher education journal rankings, and the associated advantages and disadvantages of using them. The research involved 40 individuals – lecturers, university managers, journal editors and publishers – who represented a range of stakeholders involved with research into high...
This chapter has two objectives. First, it aims to describe the nature of contemporary HE research and to assess its stability, fragility and ambiguity from the perspective of HE researchers. That picture serves as the background for meeting the second aim: to understand why and how HE experts (note the broadening from researchers to experts) are i...
Previous research has found that the images of universities formed by prospective students greatly influence their choices. With the advent of international branch campuses in several higher education hubs worldwide, many international students now attempt to construct images of these institutions when deciding where to study. The aim of this resea...
Past research revealed that International Branch Campuses (IBCs) are simultaneously under two types of isomorphic pressures. On the one hand, they are obliged to conform to the institutions of their host countries, which lead them towards homogenising with the local Higher Education Institutions (HEIs), hence deviate from their parent unit’s model....
The aim of this study is to ascertain the extent to which consumers' images of home and foreign business units, and their perceptions of the corporate images held by other stakeholders, influence their buying behavior. The sample consisted of high school students in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) who intended or expected to enter higher education....
This paper argues that the distinctive dynamics of boundary expansion and contraction provide insight in on-going change in higher education institutions. Organizational boundaries define authority and ownership, organize external relations, enhance capabilities, and foster identity. The tensions between boundary contracting and expanding are illus...
This article discusses how teaching excellence is prescribed by policy-makers and perceived by higher education institutions in the national competition for teaching excellence (Wettbewerb Exzellente Lehre) in Germany. Teaching excellence has become an important topic around the world. Its importance can be seen in the increase in policy initiative...
