The Changing Fortunes of Intermediary Agencies: Reconfiguring Higher Education Policy in Norway and Australia

Abstract

The rising importance of higher education policy among contemporary states and societies and the apparent move towards knowledge economies has been linked to overarching global reform dynamics and trends that affect higher education policy processes. One of these trends has been labeled as ‘agentification’. Agentification refers to the process of using agencies for the purposes of developing and implementing domain-specific policies, where such agencies are supposed to fulfill an ‘intermediary’ or ‘buffering’ function. Building inter alia upon typologies of agencies, this chapter examines in detail the changing role and fortunes of agencies in the domain of higher education policy of two countries – Norway and Australia –over a period of approximately 30 years. The analysis finds persistent and significant discrepancies in national attempts at agentification despite some broader convergence tendencies. Major discrepancies are manifest in the speed in which reforms were implemented and the different degrees of stability of institutional bodies in each country. It further finds that despite all reforms, in both countries the state ultimately retains significant control over higher education policy processes, which makes it difficult for agencies to fulfill a genuine buffering function.