This book explores different national models of university systems, including their historical development. It examines major themes confronting higher education, such as globalization, the growth of regulatory states, markets and education as a tradable service, and new providers utilizing the latest information and communication technologies. It also looks at implications for traditional universities and national governments.

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This article analyzes policy convergence and the adoption of globalizing models by higher education states, a process we describe, following Thatcher (2007), as policy internationalization. This refers to processes found in many policy domains and which increasingly are exemplified in tertiary education systems too. The focus is on governmental policymakers, their transnational networks, and the dilemmas they face in responding to the increasing global diffusion of governance models, such as the new public management. The notion of structuration is introduced to convey the inextricability of autonomy and structural constraint for decisionmakers in globally-situated higher education states. Primary aims are to understand the forces that drive policy internationalization, not least those associated with network power, as well as those factors that generate the basis for continuing forms of localism. It is suggested national policy 'divergences' may aid the worldwide diffusion of governance models rather than necessarily act as impediments.

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