This highly relevant volume asserts the importance associated with contextual dimensions - history, geography, disciplinary profiles, etc. - in both the governance of higher education and the various missions of higher education providers. Considering the complex interplay between regional and institutional dimensions, the authors make a compelling argument for the need for greater decentralization as a policy mechanism for fostering system diversity and in aiding regional differentiation.

Rómulo Pinheiro, Professor of Public Policy & Administration, University of Adger, Norway

This is a must read book for anybody interested in the development of higher education systems and policy. It asks big, serious questions about the future of tertiary education, and how it might be organized to play a key role in economic, social and cultural regeneration at the regional level.

Geoff Hayward, Professor of Education, University of Cambridge, UK

Shattock and Horvath expertly point to an important political opportunity for England: the devolution of its universities and further education institutions into multi-campus regional systems, united by governance, accountability, and their important regional roles. The result is a radical yet learned proposal that should generate considered debate and possibly consequential reforms.

John Aubrey Douglass, Research Professor, Goldman School of Public Policy, UC Berkeley, USA, and author of The New Flagship University