Higher education governance between democratic culture, academic aspirations and market forces

This fifth volule of the Council of Europe higher education series is the direct result of a conference on higher education governance. It is also the outcome of a project launched by the Council of Europe's Steering Committee for Higher Education and research in response to the need to bring to light an issue which underpins much of the current debate on higher education reform but has not been fully discussed at an international level. This work sets out to describe governance matters in higher education, highlight current challenges in this field and link them to basic issues debated in society at large and to the Bologna Process in particular. In doing so, it seeks to contribute well-founded arguments to a necessary, ongoing discussion rather than to present firm conclusions. Furthermore, this discussion is bound to gain in importance and relevance as the transformation process of the European Higher Education Area intensifies and issues of sustainable governance of change move up the agenda.