553 A. Curaj et al. (eds.), European Higher Education at the Crossroads: Between the Bologna Process and National Reforms, DOI 10.1007/978-94-007-3937-6_30, © Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2012 30.1 Introduction New modes of governance have been widely reported in the literature, in higher education as well as in other public domains (Kehm and Lanzendorf 2006; OECD 2008; de Boer and File 2009; Paradeise et al. 2009; de Boer et al. 2010; Paradeise 2012; Middlehurst and Teixeira 2012; Amaral et al. 2012). For several reasons traditional modes of governance have been discussed, adapted and changed. Policy makers are reconsidering the rules of the game in higher education in order to encourage universities to deliver high quality services in an efficient way. Instead of governance via hierarchy, in combination with academic self-governance, as the traditional way of ensuring the provision of education and research services in higher education, continental Europe has seen the gradual introduction of systems of governance where elements of markets and networks play a role (e.g. Pierre and Peters 2000; Bell and Hindmoor 2009). When it comes to higher education, nation states have been delegating some of their powers to different levels of government and they did so in three directions (de Boer and File 2009; Middlehurst and Teixeira 2012). One is an upward shift to the supranational level – as policy agendas, strategic choices and regulations are increasingly decided upon at, or influenced by, authorities such as the European Commission (despite the principle of subsidiarity) and international agreements (such as GATS). National governments keep a close eye on European Union devel- opments and the programmes initiated at the European level. Thus, while each country has specific national (or federal) institutions and is responsible for organizing its own higher education sector, it is clearly drawing on programmes and examples from abroad. The Open Method of Coordination is a good example of the impact H. de Boer (*) • B. Jongbloed CHEPS, University of Twente, Drienerlolaan 5, 7522 NB Enschede, The Netherlands e-mail: h.f.deboer@utwente.nl Chapter 30 A Cross-National Comparison of Higher Education Markets in Western Europe Harry de Boer and Ben Jongbloed