Higher education, the global governors, and epistemic governance

Using a neo-institutionalist framework of epistemic governance,this paper reviews how individual universities and nationalsystems of higher education globally are being reformedaccording to a global script. A number of global governors,such as intergovernmental organisations and INGOs, areinvolved in making and circulating these scripts. However, thisperspective highlights that such governance is well-hidden.Most university managers or national policy-makers are noteven aware of global governance that functions by working onhow we perceive the world and what reforms are desirable.Driven by realist assumptions of the social world (as commonin International Relations theories), analysts and activists tendto look at these global governors as power centres that dictatepolicy measures. Yet, the same analysts stumble against theobvious problem that these ‘governors’ are not governing inthe traditional sense of the term. Rather, those reforming theirown universities think according to the same global scripts, andgenerally believe it is a perfectly reasonable and locallyappropriate way of reforming. This is one reason why thesimilar reforms keep taking place around the world despiteconsiderable criticism. The framework of epistemic governancedraws attention to systemic, worldwide patterns underlying thehidden politics of national higher education policies, such asmassification and utilitarianism as analysed here.