This Paper analyses university institutional governance reforms and their implementation in two Napoleonic states (Italy and Portugal), a cluster of countries under-researched in comparative perspectives in HE governance literature. The paper develops a multi-level analysis, first addressing how international concepts have been translated into national laws (‘Gelmini’ reform in Italy and RJIES in Portugal); second assessing how all state universities in both countries implemented them by analysing their new statutes. Findings show that both states preserve traits of their previous institutional governance model. Therefore, past features shape thus the way countries respond to the transnational model of university governance and policy alternatives that prove feasible at a given point in time are limited by the historical-institutional context.
