Higher Education in Europe´s Knowledge Economies: National and Regional Stakeholders' Influence on Higher Education Policy

This study explores the influence of stakeholders on higher education policy within the context of the knowledge economy. More precisely, it examines the influence of employers' associations, universities, and regional and national political authorities on higher education policy in the cases of Ireland and Spain. Drawing from the literature on Growth Models (GM), the study employs a combination of content analysis of 31 semi-structured expert interviews, descriptive statistics, and analyses of official documents from regional and national stakeholders. The analysis identifies the existence of two intertwined underlying conditions as central to the ability of specific stakeholders to influence higher education policy: the characteristics of labour markets and the governance structure of higher education systems. The findings demonstrate that national stakeholders exert a greater influence in centralised higher education systems, while regional stakeholders have a more significant impact in decentralised higher education systems.