This article examines the causes and outcomes of two university reforms during the single-party era in Turkey (1923-1946), focusing on the implications of the reforms in terms of higher education governance models--the state-control and academic self-governance--that are ultimately characterized by the balance between the type and degree of central control and university autonomy. The paper argues that the degree of ideational controversy and institutional strength in the given policy field considerably affected the reform processes and outcomes, reconciling historical institutionalist assumptions with ideational institutional approaches. The process-tracing analysis shows that the university reform of 1933 was mainly triggered by the ideological and political dissidence between some of the academic staff and the ruling and intellectual elite who wanted to heavily control the university and ended up with the transition to a heavy state-control regime. The principal driving force behind the 1946 reform was to adapt the country to the changing external political conditions after the end of WWII, aiming to lend a democratic face to the regime, which, in combination with other factors such as the growing opposition from academic circles, led to the institutionalization of academic self-governance model.