It is important to understand that every country organizes and categorizes higher education institutions in different ways. As noted in the Fielden article on global trends in university governance, there are several different governance models that vary in degrees of state involvement. Some countries have state controlled governance models, where the Ministry of Education considers higher education institutions as state corporations and have the most control over decision making. On the other hand there are other countries which have very “independent” governance models where the only relation higher education institutions have with the state is with its funding. Fielden also mentions that the trend in higher education governance is to move towards a more autonomous model, which is consistent with the Varghese and Martin article on governance reform in Asia. The Asian countries Varghese and Martin mentioned were more centralized models with heavy state-involvement. However, reforms over the years have given much of the influence and power over to the institutions now. One of the main reasons why institutions are reforming is because autonomy would allow for academic freedom, which is important in academia and education. Maybe as information and knowledge becomes more free flowing people will understand internationalization and why it is necessary for higher education across the globe to internationalize.

Although, higher education systems like the US are independent in Feilden’s spectrum, they may not be as autonomous as one might believe. For example, CUNY’s latest battle with Governor Andrew Cuomo over his decision to cut nearly $500 million worth of state funding shows how dependent the university system is on state funding and how restricted it is due to its reliance on state appropriations. As one women said, these cuts would not be sustainable for the future of CUNY. The situation ended with the governor stipulating that CUNY and SUNY would need to work with a financial management consultant in order to find savings and to cut overhead. However, it could be problematic because it would essentially be the state intervening on the financial decisions and budgets of the senior colleges. So, although the university system is for the most part independent in its operations and academics, state control over funding could limit its autonomy in the long-run.