The new government strategy for higher education in the Netherlands: an analysis

In the Netherlands a new government strategy for higher education is emerging. This new strategy is presented by the Ministry of Education and Science as a development of more institutional self-regulation and a distancing of government from day to day higher education affairs. This article asks whether the Dutch Government is really allowing higher education institutions to become more autonomous. To answer this question two recent policy papers on higher education from the Ministry of Education and Science are analysed using a theoretical model of natural selection drawn from organisation theory.