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Systems Theoretical Perspectives on Higher Education Policy and Governance

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The Palgrave International Handbook of Higher Education Policy and Governance

Abstract

Since the days of Talcott Parsons (1973), Joseph Ben-David (1977) and Burton Clark (1983), higher education research has been deeply rooted in the analysis of individual national higher education systems and in their comparison. For a long time this has been an appropriate and fruitful approach, since in many countries of the world higher education has predominantly been organized as a service of the public sector, and universities and other higher education institutions have been mainly regarded as national institutions. But this approach becomes inadequate in our days. This is one of the arguments which will be made in this chapter.

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Authors
  1. Thomas Pfeffer
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  2. Rudolf Stichweh
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Ghent University, Belgium

    Jeroen Huisman

  2. University of Twente, the Netherlands

    Harry de Boer

  3. University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, USA

    David D. Dill

  4. Cardiff University, UK

    Manuel Souto-Otero

Copyright information

© 2015 Thomas Pfeffer and Rudolf Stichweh

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Cite this chapter

Pfeffer, T., Stichweh, R. (2015). Systems Theoretical Perspectives on Higher Education Policy and Governance. In: Huisman, J., de Boer, H., Dill, D.D., Souto-Otero, M. (eds) The Palgrave International Handbook of Higher Education Policy and Governance. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-137-45617-5_9

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