Higher Education Policies in Transition: What Drives Trends in the Restructuring of Universities?

This article tries to examine the major aspects of current trends that impact higher education policies in ongoing processes of universities\u27 restructuring, particularly higher education system transformation in Europe (Bologna process), with an emphasis on postcommunist societies. Globalization, internalization and marketization are identified as main exogenous factors, while massification, national specificities (political and cultural), educational legacies, and local government capabilities are the most significant endogenous factors that determine reforms of higher education systems. The author examines the trends of universities\u27 restructuring under conditions of change of traditional relations between them and the social environment, particularly the state. They are characterized by diminishing of the key role of the nation-state in current social and economic development, as well as gradual decomposition of the welfare state and reduction of its core functions, including a significantly reduced support to higher education. Both processes push policy makers toward market-led policies on higher education, which causes problems, whether of higher education sustainability, or quality and competitiveness, or accessibility and equity. The author argues that the exogenous factors largely impact (or directly create) trends that affect changes in higher education systems, particularly in the universities\u27 role and mission, while the endogenous factors are mainly responsible for the success of reforms in certain societies