Universities are increasingly perceived as strategic organizational actors that position themselves in the competition for reputation, resources, and talent. This study asks whether such positioning within the organizational field can explain variance in university governance structures. We quantitatively explore and explain the distribution of…

This article examines the relevance of different institutional levels in higher education for the educational strategies of upper milieu students in a case study conducted in Germany. Based on our analysis of 95 qualitative interviews with Masters students from different social backgrounds, we show how upper milieu students take advantage of the…

For two centuries, academics and their universities have competed for prominence and vied to demonstrate that their institutions are at the center of the scholarly world. Scientific advances in particular fields, reciprocal academic visits and conferences, impressive physical architecture, and publishing in shared venues and a "lingua…

Accreditation can serve as an accountability mechanism for higher education, ensuring institutions meet specific standards, which can be impacted by various factors including the regulatory environment of each country or local jurisdiction as well as an institution's mission, enrollment, and student success trends. In addition, higher education…

This paper examines the role of institutional isomorphism in influencing digital transformation (DT) within municipalities. It addresses the gap in understanding how coercive, mimetic, and normative pressures shape municipal strategies and operations as they adopt and implement digital technologies. Through a systematic literature review and…

As previous research has not addressed the relationship between university autonomy and university rankings within countries where the state control model is used, this study explores universities' strategies to achieve top university rankings in accordance with their autonomous rights and financial as well as political support. Specifically, this…

This study analyses the effects of institutional stratification in higher education systems on graduates' wages in engineering fields in Germany and Korea. We use survey data from the Korean 2013 Graduates Occupational Mobility Survey (GOMS) and the German 2013 Graduate Survey Cooperation Project (KOAB). For Korea, where the higher education…

Employability has become one of the most important outcomes of higher education despite it being weakly conceptualised for the sector. The lack of an accepted conceptualisation to address students' and graduates' employability results in difficulties when comparing research findings and therefore in assessing quality in higher education provision.…

Unlike in the US and other western countries, the higher education market in Germany has been sheltered from competition. This changed recently, when a governmental "excellence initiative" began to allocate substantial supplementary funds dependent on higher education institutions' performance, in 2005. This study is aimed at assessing…

This article was written in response to concerns that have been expressed about the possible consequences of an increasing number of countries overtaking the United States in educational attainment. International statistics on educational attainment were analyzed, questions about comparability of data were discussed, and the impact of different…

Rankings are part and parcel of the neoliberal agenda in science aiming at increasing the competitive allocation of funds among universities. This article focuses on the decreasing power of renewal in science as a result of this agenda particularly because of its increasingly consolidated stratification of the academic system into élite and mass…

Global rankings are creating a furore wherever or whenever they are published or mentioned. They have become a barometer of global competition measuring the knowledge-producing and talent-catching capacity of higher education institutions. These developments are injecting a new competitive dynamic into higher education, nationally and globally,…