University Alumni in Contentious Higher Education Policy

The transformation into knowledge economies has increased the influence of higher education policy in economic development and high-tech industries. With this growing importance and the commitment to increase human-capital countries have implemented different models for higher education governance. While complexities of multiple governance models and the stakeholders’ positions have been widely studied, a key actor has been understudied: the alumni. Alumni’s articulation of policy positions especially regarding financial management and autonomy of universities enables and constrains policy proposals, especially the policies proposed by state actors. In order to fill this gap in the analysis of multi-actor-characteristics in higher education policy, I focus on the recent policy changes on rector appointments in Turkey with a focus on months-long student-faculty-alumni led protests and opposition in Boğaziçi University. This controversy pulled the government actors, political parties, unions, left-wing and right-wing movement organizations, as well student, faculty, and alumni associations into the debate. As the policy has become contentious, it highlighted the composite relationships between different policy fields and actors. I fielded a survey of 1131 Boğaziçi University alumni that include all age groups and political positions, conducted the in-depth interviews and the fieldwork, and analyzed the discourse in mass media and on Twitter. Based on this mixed methods analysis, I argue that the perception of undemocratic measures towards protests increases the demand for more democratic governance on campus and less bureaucratic management. Under these circumstances, alumni associations might reconfigure themselves as advocacy groups and influence public opinion. This involvement, especially in elite universities where the alumni occupy influential positions in politics and in the private sector, might put pressure on the opposition parties to re-articulate and calibrate their higher education policy position.