Education reforms in Europe’s knowledge economies: The impact of technological change on higher education

The impact of technological change on national economies and societies has become a widely debated topic in recent years. These debates are chiefly, but not exclusively, devoted to the influence of technological changes on employment within the knowledge-based economy. Against this background, there is growing literature regarding the impact of technological change on employment relations in the scope of the potential replacement of workers by robots, job polarization, increasing wage gaps, and income inequality. Conversely, the impact of technological change on other aspects of economies and societies remains widely neglected. This is the case for higher education (HE), where the ability of systems to cope with the influence of technological change remains largely disregarded. In addition, debates on the nexus between technological change and higher education policies – within the comparative political economy literature, are commonly restricted to the analyses of institutional changes and the role of different stakeholders across a variety of countries at the national level. Yet, the implications of those changes at the regional level tend to be set aside. Consequently, up to date, there is a limited understanding of the causes and patterns of the broader implications of technological change for higher education systems at the regional level. Drawing from the literature on historical institutionalism and growth models, this research aims at exploring the intersection between technological change, tertiary education policies, and labor market relations at the regional level in varying regions of Ireland and Spain. Based on semi-structured interviews with regional and national stakeholders in addition to secondary data analysis. It argues that private stakeholders operating in core economic sectors, at the national level, play a central role in deciding in which disciplines university degrees are provided. It also argues that subnational higher education systems tend to replicate those national patterns of skill provision - despite the autonomy of regional actors and potential mismatches between national and regional growth models. By applying most similar strategy, in the context of small-n case studies, this research applies comparative research design to evaluate the developments in education policies in the scope of the knowledge economies in Europe. In addition, it presents a holistic view of the function of different regional education systems; to identify the strength and potential limitations of subnational higher education systems in relation to the knowledge economy.