Higher Education Reform in Time of Crisis

This study examines the transformation of the Greek higher education system at a time of crisis focusing on syriza/anel governance (2015–19). It aims to contribute to the literature on coalition governments’ policy choices. It also intends to enrich the research on the new party cleavages triggered by the economic crisis which hit both Europe and Greece in 2008/9, across pro- vs anti-Europeans/Eurosceptic and pro- vs anti-austerity parties, and on how these cleavages are reflected in higher education policy. It argues that these divides and the politicisation of higher education at the national and European level mobilized partisan entrepreneurs to pursue their strategies and ideological preferences in framing the agenda, to offer solutions based both on an anti-EU and an anti-austerity platform to reverse and reform the previous governments’ laws and forward their own reforms.