The contemporary economic imaginary of the ‘knowledge-based economy’
is changing the perception of higher education in Europe. The goals of
higher education are changing and reform of institutions is predicted. The
present article examines these reforms and conceptualisations of higher
education by presenting the results of discourse analysis of 47 international
policy documents at the European level and two comprehensive national
strategies of the Republic of Slovenia for higher education, research and
innovation. Based on the analysis of the European documents, the article
suggests that two main discourses are constructed: a) ‘the research-based
society and economy’, and b) ‘reforming the university’. These present the
emergence of a new idea of higher education at the international and national
levels. The article investigates the extent to which these discourses
are present in Slovenian higher education policy. The findings show that
Slovenian discourse hesitates to embrace them fully. In particular, the idea
of the managerial university is marginal in Slovenian discourse.
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