1. Change Dynamics and Higher Education Reforms: Effects on Education, Research, Governance and Academic Profession; Part 1 - Education; 2. Signs of Reengagement? Changes in Teaching Methodology in the Framework of the Bologna Process; 3. Cultures of Doctoral Education in Germany: Beyond Disciplines and Disciplinary Groupings?; 4. Researching the Current Dynamics of Professional Expertise: Three Analytic Discourses; Part 2 - Research; 5. Transformation Through Layering(s)? The case of Researcher Mobility in the Construction of the European Research area; 6. How Europe Impacts on Academic Research: The Transformative Potential of the European Framework Programmes; 7. Higher Education Reform During and After Armed Conflict: The case of Sudan; 8. Higher Education and Economic Development in Africa: The Academic core; 9. Student Financial aid in the United States: Instruments, Effects and Policy Implications; 10. Towards a European Quality Assurance System; 11. Frameworks, Effects and Significance of Research Assessment in the Italian University System; Part 4 - Academic Profession; 12. The Transformation of the Academic Profession: The Erosion of Tenure and the (E)state of the Professoriate; 13. Beyond Physical Mobility: Other ways to Internationalise the
Academic Profession; 14. Gender gaps in North American Research Productivity: Examining Faculty Publication Rates in Mexico, Canada, and the U.S.; 15. Personal Characteristics, Career Trajectories and Sense of Identity Among Male and Female Academics in Norway and Portugal; Author Biographies.

Higher education is in transition. On the one hand, over the last decades it has become politically and economically more important and thus also an object of reforms. On the other hand, higher education has become less special and is no longer able to justify its unique governance arrangements. This volume presents a collection of contributions that go beyond reform agendas as such and focus on the effects of reforms at all relevant levels in higher education systems. It is organised in four themes - education, research, governance, and academic profession - with a variety of levels of analysis, theoretical perspectives, methodological approaches and geographical foci. The topics in focus include the possible impact of latest national and European initiatives, changes in the primary processes (education and research) on the levels of institutions, professions and for individuals as well as higher education dynamics in contexts often overlooked in the literature (e.g. Africa). The aim is to 'take stock' of the growing knowledge basis with respect to higher education with a special focus on the influence of reforms on the key aspects of higher education.