Accountability in higher education: Bridge over troubled water?

This article discusses the impact ofaccountability on higher education policies inEurope and the United States. We describe howthe accountability movement relates to otherpolicy trends in higher education, providingempirical data on how accountability wasimplemented and how academics and managers infour universities perceived these policies. Weclose the article with a reflection on theobserved shift from professional to politicalaccountability that uses `soft' mechanisms thatseem to offer little change in the quality ofeducation in these countries.