Coordination of higher education within national sets is discussed in this working paper. The structural bases of national coordination, the tasks of higher education and the prevailing structure of embedded power, are described. The national general patterns of coordinative organization that appear frequently among national systems of higher…

Four major paths of academic coordination in higher education are detailed: by bureaucracy, profession, politics, and the market. All four are involved in all national academic systems, but in widely varying strengths and combinations. Each performs needed functions, and policy becomes a matter of balance and mutual adjustment. (Author/JMD)

Basic elements of the higher education system are considered, along with variations across nations (the United Kingdom, Sweden, Japan, Italy, France, the Federal Republic of Germany, Australia, Canada, the United States, Poland, Yugoslavia, Mexico, and Thailand). Three basic elements of the organization of higher education system are identified:…