Due to the appreciation of universities as key actors in the development of the European knowledge-based society and economy, it has become more common to emphasise the need for a European perspective on universities. However, nation-states are still solely responsible for regulating higher education and deciding national priorities. In this sense, university autonomy, funding and quality are three specific policy areas of interest at all three levels (i.e. European, Spanish and Catalan). The study has a governance and multi-governance perspective with a special focus on how policies are adopted from level to level. The aim of this book is to study how European level higher education policies on university autonomy, funding and quality are adopted at national (Spanish) and regional (Catalan) levels.

Alícia Betts holds a master''s in Higher Education by the Universities of Oslo, Tampere and Aveiro. She has worked with International Affairs at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona and is now a project manager at the Catalan Association of Public Universities (ACUP).