Convergence or divergence in university institutional governance reforms? Comparing Napoleonic States

This paper fills the debate about convergence or divergence in higher education organizational change, analysing university institutional governance reforms and their implementation in two Napoleonic states (Italy and Portugal), a cluster of countries under-researched in comparative perspectives in HE governance literature. We develop a multi-level analysis, first addressing how international concepts have been translated into national laws (‘Gelmini’ reform in Italy and RJIES in Portugal); second assessing how all state universities in both countries implemented them by analysing their new statutes. Our findings show that both states preserve traits of their previous institutional governance model. Past features shape the way countries respond to the transnational model of legitimized university governance. Thus, policy alternatives that prove feasible at a given point in time are limited by the historical-institutional context. Consequently, the concept of organizational allomorphism explains the current pattern in HE institutional governance reform better than both convergence and divergence.