¹Hochschul Informationsystem HIS GmbH, Hanover, Germany. E-mail: Orr@his.de

Abstract

We hope that the Government does not intend to seek to impose a market and believe it would be a grave error of judgement if it did so. It would be quite wrong for the Government to act in this way. If a market does not arise it will be because of the restrictions which the Government has itself imposed, and it must live with the consequences.
(House of Commons Education and Skills Committee, 2003, 77)

This article focuses on methods of funding allocation and quality assurance as prominent levers of change in higher education reform today. It is their interplay which forms the main components of coordination frameworks. The arguments for more market or new forms of state intervention can only be understood in the context of such a framework. Developments in the higher education system of the Czech Republic, which has seen interesting changes within the last 15 years from an extreme institutional autonomy to a more balanced relationship between state and universities, will be drawn upon to illustrate these arguments.