Markets in higher education: from systemic to institutional marketization

In recent decades, governments have been willing to introduce market elements in the regulation of higher education, which has reshaped this sector, both at the system and at lower levels. In this text, we reflect about the growing role of marketization in higher education, and we examine how recent policy changes have moved from policy initiatives aiming at the macro/system level to more micro/institutionally targeted policy initiatives in their aim to promote a growing influence of market forces in European higher education. We aim to cover areas such as funding, governance, and human resources, in which policies at the system level aiming to create quasi-markets have stimulated higher education institutions to replicate corporate and competitive approaches internally. We also reflect about the potential and limitations of emphasizing an economic rationale in the regulation and management of higher education.