A comparative study of the drivers of governance reform in European higher education systems; Approaches for Iran

The higher education system is subject to rapid change due to its dynamic nature and these developments are affecting higher education systems with different origins, therefore, knowing these developments and recognizing the factors that cause them can be very effective in regulating this area. To this end, the present study examines the drivers of governance reform in European higher education systems. Because comparative studies are considered as one of the ways to achieve the existing knowledge in this field, which promotes the views of policy makers. Therefore, the aim of this study is to investigate the factors driving the reforms in the governance of higher education systems in European countries. The reason for choosing European countries is the extensive changes in the higher education systems of these countries after the 1990s. The countries of this continent have been selected based on the traditional division into Eastern and Western Europe. After reviewing scientific and policy documents on governance reform, three countries, Germany, France, and Italy were selected from Western Europe, and Poland, Romania, and Bulgaria from Eastern Europe, which had more complete documents. The approach of the present study is qualitative research and has been performed in four stages using the comparative method of Bereday. Thus, after reviewing and analyzing the content of documents related to countries, the driving factors were identified in two general categories of "internal and external factors", each of which had a number of sub-factors. Finally, approaches to examining reforming the Iran's higher education system were provided.