This pioneering book examines how policies to raise efficiency and performance in Europe's universities have profoundly altered ties between government, society and higher education, outlining how Evaluation Agencies have urged Europe's universities to meet the challenge of modernization.

This work examines how the rise of the 'evaluative state' has profoundly changed relationships between government, higher education and society in western Europe over the past quarter century

Avant Propos. Foreword; A.Amaral PART I: A WORLD SET UPSIDE DOWN Setting the Scene The Many Faces of Autonomy: Institutional, Positional and Linguistic. The Evaluative State: a Formative Concept and an Overview The Significance of Evaluative Homogeneity PART II: RE-ENGINEERING TWO HIGHER EDUCATION SYSTEMS France: The Asterix Syndrome and the Exceptional Case Strengthening the Evaluative State: Strategy, Values and Rhetoric Discord Dissected: the French New University and some of its Discontents Spain: Defining Autonomy, Setting up Evaluation PART III: PORTUGAL A FOCUSED ACCOUNT Portugal: Laying out the Higher Education Landscape The Dynamic in Portugal's Higher Education Policy Re-focusing Institutional Autonomy: the 2007 Decree Law Reform at the Edge that Cuts: The Institutional Level Portuguese Higher Education Reform: Four Key Dimensions PART IV: TWO CONCLUSIONS AND AN ENVOI A Flight over the Evaluative State Evolving Portugal and its Neighbours Re-engineering the University: Policy as Endgame Envoi: An Opening Gambit on a Board with no White Squares Notes References Bibliography