The Current State of Research in State and Higher Education System Relationship

Abstract

The purpose of the study is to fill the existing gap in the field of systemic higher education governance which is a lack of systematic and structured literature review of peer-reviewed articles. The objective is to analyze the relationship between the state and the higher education system. In other words, what are the different types of systemic governance models, and what are the instruments used by the government to control the higher education sector? The method of Systematic Literature Review is used to review over forty research articles on systemic higher education governance. PRISMA protocol was adopted to conduct a Systematic Literature Review. Findings show that higher education governance is moving towards marketization. However, the trend is neither universal nor straightforward. The role of the state in the higher education system is dominant and will remain so because even marketization in countries is steered tightly by the state. Second, no model of higher education governance is implemented in its entirety, resulting in hybrid models of higher education governance. Third, even though the state is steering higher education systems in the same direction, public policy instruments adopted by the government in different countries varies. Mergers the are most used policy instruments in...