This volume addresses the conceptions of actors and actorhood in higher education research. It explores the range of actors that are (or should be) recognized and theorized in higher education research, the processes that shape actorhood in the higher education reforms and explores the relations between the actors and higher education reforms. Drawing on a range of theoretical frameworks and research projects, the volume provides in-depth analyses of higher education actors and reform issues through institutional, system or international comparative perspective. The volume celebrates and is in conversation with the intellectual contributions of Professor Pavel Zgaga whose work advances our understanding of actors and actorhood in higher education and higher education reforms.

1. Introduction: From actors to reforms in European higher education.- 2. Pavel Zgaga - actor in reforms of higher education.- Part I. Reforming European Higher Education.- Chapter 3. The silent treks of transformative thinkers and successful reformers in higher education: a European experience.- 4. The Myth of Power: Governing Reform in the Bologna Process of Higher Education.- 5. From the EHEA to the EEA: renewed state-making ambitions in the regional governance of education in Europe.- 6. Pavel Zgaga and Bologna actors: policymaking on the External Dimension and the Bologna Policy Forum, 2003-2009.- 7. Cooperation in Higher Education Before and Beside the European Higher Education Area: Slovenia and Austria.- 8. Higher Education in two countries from ex-Yugoslav Federation: thirty years of constitutional embracement.- Part II. Global Challenges to Higher Education Reforms.- 9. Actors and Actorhood in Higher Education Regionalisms.- 10. Agents of global competition in the international student market.- 11. The Diffusion of Higher Education Reforms from the Global North. The case of Sub-Saharan Africa.- 12. Reforms in Quality Assurance: A Response to Recent Challenges in a Transforming Higher Education Sector.- 13. Higher Education in Europe in the Context of Global Developments.- Part III. Social Dimension in Higher Education and Democracy.- 14. Unpacking the Social Dimension of Universities.- 15. Tuition fees and university reforms.- 16. The democratic role and public responsibility of higher education and science.- 17. Education for democracy: balancing intellectual rigor and political action.- Part IV. Teachers and Teacher Education, Academics and Academic Profession.- 18. Teacher education as part of higher education: The mission and challenges.- 19. The transformative potential of doctoral networks in teacher education: A European perspective.- 20. Academics, Neo-Liberalism and English Higher Education: Decline and Fall.- 21. Global Vertical Stratification ofInstitutions and the Academic Profession: The Role of Research in Future High Participation Environments.- 22. Impact of internationalization strategies on academics' international research activities. Case study of the three HE peripheries: Slovenia, Croatia, and Lithuania.- Index.

Manja Klemen¿i¿ is Associate Senior Lecturer on Sociology of Higher Education and in General Education, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Harvard University and Associate Researcher, Centre of Educational Policy Studies, Faculty of Education, University of Ljubljana. Manja's main research is on students' impact on higher education through representation, service roles, campus employment, consumerism, and activism. She also works on student agency in student-centered learning and teaching, and a broad range of other higher education topics. Since 2014, Manja serves as Editor-in-Chief of European Journal of Higher Education, and since 2015 as Co-Editor of the academic book series Understanding Student Experiences of Higher Education. She co-edited The International Encyclopedia of Higher Education Systems and Institutions (Springer, 2020) and The Routledge International Handbook of Student-Centered Learning and Teaching in Higher Education (Routledge, 2020). Manja wonmultiple awards for excellence in teaching at Harvard, and regularly acts as a consultant for international organizations and governments on higher education policies and programs.