Abstract
European higher education has been undergoing major restructuring since the early 1990s. Many of these - such as strengthening institutional leadership, establishing governing boards, enhancing quality and accountability and applying performance based budgeting - resemble practices in the United States. But unlike the United States where the catalyst has been the external environment, EU changes have occurred more at the Institutional level due to state ministries policies or EU agreements. Barbara Sporn analyzes these reforms and the major drivers behind them.