Roger King examines how universities, as increasingly autonomous organizations, are subject to forms of global governance that rely particularly on private and peer-processes rather than legal command and compliance.The book explores the growing influence of global regulatory governance - governmental and private - on universities and national higher education systems. It considers processes of purposeful standardization, normative internalization and markets as solutions for coordination and collective action problems, as well as hierarchical command. A range of university systems, world models and organizations, particularly those associated with Europe and the OECD are examined, with particular emphasis on the growth of national and global league tables and similar rankings of higher education institutions as a form of regulation. Governance globally is found to operate through 'steerage', networks, deliberation and communities of the knowledgeable and the expert.

The comprehensive coverage of global university governance includes conceptual, theoretical and empirical analyses that will be invaluable to higher education researchers and students, and to public policy academics, students and practitioners. Global governance analysts, global business and management postgraduates, as well as regulation theorists and practitioners will also find this book to be of great interest.