Institutional Attention to European policy Agendas: Exploring the Relevance of Instrumental and Neo-Institutional Explanations
Tertiary Education and Management 2018
Modris Ozoliņš, Bjørn Stensaker, Elīna Gaile-Sarkane, Liene Ivanova, Inga Lapiņa, Iveta Ozoliņa-Ozola, Anita Straujuma

This article addresses how European policy initiatives in higher education, research and innovation are diffused in the European higher education research and education area. Based on an instrumental and an institutional perspective, specific expectations are developed as to how policy diffusion might unfold, and, through an in-depth analysis of the strategic plans of 19 higher education institutions in Latvia and Norway, the article identifies factors that potentially mediate European policies into the strategic agenda of universities and colleges. The findings show that European Union membership and policy area seems to matter for the attention given to European policy initiatives, while administrative capacity at institutional level have less or quite mixed effects. The article concludes that both instrumental and institutional perspectives are of value in explaining how European policy diffusion takes place.


Keywords
Higher education institution strategy, Bologna process, European policy, Higher education, Lisbon strategy, Research
DOI
10.1080/13583883.2018.1459820
Hyperlink
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13583883.2018.1459820

Ozoliņš, M., Stensaker, B., Gaile-Sarkane, E., Ivanova, L., Lapiņa, I., Ozoliņa-Ozola, I., Straujuma, A. Institutional Attention to European policy Agendas: Exploring the Relevance of Instrumental and Neo-Institutional Explanations. Tertiary Education and Management, 2018, Vol.24 No.4, pp.338-350. ISSN 1358-3883. e-ISSN 1573-1936. Available from: doi:10.1080/13583883.2018.1459820

Publication language
English (en)
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