Abstract
Universities and colleges are embedded in rapidly changing local, national, and global contexts that are strongly affected by the notion of a knowledge economy. Powell and Snellman (2004: 201) emphasize the key role of human resources in their definition of a knowledge economy as “production and services based on knowledge-intensive activities that contribute to an accelerated pace of technological and scientific advance as well as equally rapid obsolescence. The key components of a knowledge economy include a greater reliance on intellectual capabilities than on physical inputs or natural resources”. As a consequence of this shift from physical to human resources, universities and colleges have gained political and socio-economic importance as core ‘knowledge institutions’. This has resulted in the enhanced importance of higher education as a policy area, as well as a growing academic interest in studying the transformation processes in higher education.