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Worlds of higher education transformed: toward varieties of academic capitalism

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Abstract

This article explores the changing character and consequences of state authorities’ evolving relationships with universities in the United States, Germany, and Norway—typical cases for different national worlds of higher education. It argues that across the three OECD countries, welfare states have strengthened market principles in university governance, yet shaped competition in different ways. This conceptualization of institutional changes makes two seemingly conflicting perspectives compatible: one diagnosing national convergence on academic capitalism and one arguing for lasting divergence across national political economic regimes. Upon proposing ideal-typical trajectories of market-making institutional liberalization, the article explores path-dependent movement toward varieties of academic capitalism in the three countries. The findings on the socio-economic effects of this transformation suggest the need to moderate expectations on the ability of reformed higher education systems to contain contemporary societies’ centrifugal forces.

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Chart 1

Notes

  1. The cases are typical for particular institutional configurations—including governance and funding patterns—across both social policy and higher education. While they also represent particular causal relationships in the broader area of social policy (Esping-Andersen 1990; Gerring 2007, p. 89; Thelen 2014), it remains to be seen if this is equally true within the realm of higher education.

  2. Such comparisons are hard to make given that the available data are beset by measurement errors and systematic biases. Moreover, in the USA, high projected growth rates for the size of younger populations (due to a large foreign-born share) tend to depress entry and graduation rates compared to other countries (Adelman 2008).

  3. The OECD lists a completion rate of 53% for all American tertiary programs, with 64% for type-A programs and 18% for type-B (OECD 2013, p. 71). When one allows for a longer time to degree and better accounts for transfer students, American completion rates tend to be significantly higher (Adelman 2008).

  4. The impact of new regulations passed in early 2016 on temporary contracts in the academy remains unclear so far.

  5. Realistically, of course, such efforts will not be “value-free,” given that comparative categorization often relies on scholars’ value judgments.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank two anonymous reviewers, the editors of the special issue, as well as John Aubrey Douglass, Jim Hearn, Christine Musselin, Marino Regini, Bob Shireman, and Sheila Slaughter for valuable comments.

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  1. School of Management and Labor Relations, Rutgers University, 50 Labor Center Way, New Brunswick, NJ, 08901, USA

    Tobias Schulze-Cleven

  2. Institute of Social Sciences, Osnabrück University, Seminarstraße 33, 49074, Osnabrück, Germany

    Jennifer R. Olson

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Schulze-Cleven, T., Olson, J.R. Worlds of higher education transformed: toward varieties of academic capitalism. High Educ 73, 813–831 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-017-0123-3

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