Jens Jungblut

• Breeman, Gerard; Cavari, Amnon; Jungblut, Jens; Shpaizman, Ilana; Timmermans, Arco & Valgermo, Jon Bøe (2026). Policy Agendas in Coalition Agreements: The Enduring Influence of Policy Inheritance. Policy Studies Journal (PSJ). ISSN 0190-292X. 54(4). doi: 10.1111/psj.70169. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  New governments frequently inherit issues from their predecessors, and as a result, various policy problems tend to remain on the agenda for many years. Previous research examining the role of policy inheritance has focused mainly on the agenda during a government's term in office. These studies find that because governments must first contend with the problems they inherit, there is considerably less room for new issues to emerge on the agenda. This study seeks to examine the idea of policy inheritance through the lens of coalition agreements. Coalition agreements, a feature of multiparty governments, are drafted shortly after elections and reflect the outcome of the political struggle. For this reason, one can expect that coalition agreements contain mostly issues that parties regard as important. By implication, changes in the coalition agreements' issue agenda would be a function of the political change produced by the electoral cycle, rather than of inheritance. Analyzing coalition agreements in three countries—Israel, the Netherlands, and Norway—across 42 elections, we find no evidence for this assumption. Agendas in coalition agreements do not vary with changes in the party composition of the coalition, changes in the ideological distance between parties, or changes in the party holding the office of Prime Minister. This indicates that even when new coalition governments are preparing for their term in office, inheritance remains the primary driver of agenda‐setting.

• Jungblut, Jens; Maassen, Peter & Stensaker, Bjørn (2026). Investigating the Dynamics of European University Alliances as Multi‐Level Governance Spaces. European Policy Analysis. 12(3). doi: 10.1002/epa2.70050. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  The European universities initiative (EUI) has been presented by some as a disruptive policy initiative within the Europe of Knowledge given its speed, scale and scope of changes. In this article, a multi‐level governance (MLG) perspective is used to investigate the most important similarities and differences regarding the national policy responses to the EUI in Germany and Norway. The applied MLG perspective focuses on three dimensions: center‐periphery, state‐society, and international‐domestic. Although Norway and Germany can be considered to be most different systems from the perspective of our research questions, we found interesting similarities between the countries, particularly regarding the strong interest in participating in a European alliance. At the same time, the role of the state and in particular that of the political leadership in the form of the responsible sectoral ministries, has been strikingly different, reflecting the differences in the countries' relationship with the EU.

• Jungblut, Jens & Stensaker, Bjørn (2026). Extended collegiality? The role of students in external quality assurance panels in Europe. Quality in Higher Education. ISSN 1353-8322. p. 1–17. doi: 10.1080/13538322.2026.2663650. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Student representation in external quality assurance is a mandatory requirement in European higher education systems and the involvement of students in such processes is seen as important for the legitimacy of evaluations, accreditations and audits. However, there is limited knowledge about the role students play in external quality assurance panels and how they perceive their involvement. This study seeks to address this gap. It is based on a survey of students who routinely take part in external quality assurance exercises across Europe. The survey shows that students perceive themselves as representatives, partners or even experts. Students’ multiple roles and their integration into panel practices indicate that quality assurance panels function as a form of extended collegiality. In the discussion, the paper outlines the key conditions for integrating students into external quality assurance and not least, how students’ expertise in such processes may be enhanced.

• Jungblut, Jens (2026). Turning the university into a political actor. Policy Reviews in Higher Education. ISSN 2332-2969. doi: 10.1080/23322969.2026.2640865. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Higher education has gained significant political salience globally, driven by continuous massification, increased public and private investment, and its central role as a driver of modern knowledge economies as well as a provider of solutions for societal challenges. This attention, however, occurs within an environment of growing populism, neo-nationalism, and challenges to liberal values such as academic freedom, creating both opportunities and threats for universities and their leadership. Building on the work by Krücken and Meier regarding organizational actorhood of universities, this paper argues that the contemporary, contentious political landscape sets incentives for universities to move beyond being merely organizational actors and become political actors. This shift is necessary for universities to actively shape their political environment and secure their legitimacy, which is increasingly challenged by colliding interests of various national and global stakeholders. To navigate this reality, universities are increasingly adopting strategies associated with policy entrepreneurs. This development demands fundamental adjustments from higher education institutions and their leadership. Acknowledging universities as political actors invites research to re-conceptualize established ideas about higher education governance and policymaking, moving past the notion of universities as passive recipients of policies and steering signals from their political or social environments.

• Jungblut, Jens; Weidmann, Nils B. & Knutsen, Carl Henrik (2026). The politics behind political science: A cross-national perspective. European Political Science. ISSN 1680-4333. doi: 10.1017/s1682098326100241. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Political science concerns topics that can be highly relevant for politicians. Political science research and education offer insights that can help incumbents win elections or govern better. At the same time, the discipline provides knowledge that can be used to challenge politicians in office, for example, on how to organise mass protests or effective opposition parties. Therefore, politicians in power may have mixed feelings about the existence of political science departments. Some will encourage their establishment, while others – perhaps especially autocrats – may try to contain their presence or control their location. We study the existence and placement of political science units at universities across the world and assess the extent to which these features vary with regime type. Using large-N data on university subdivisions, we examine cross-national variation in existence and within-country variation in the location of political science departments. We find surprisingly few substantial differences along the democracy–autocracy continuum: Political science units, on average, are no more frequent in democracies. Across regime types, political science units are about equally likely to be located at public (versus private) institutions, and similarly likely to be placed at universities closer to the capital.

• Jungblut, Jens & Elken, Mari (2025). Searching for the Right Balance between Equality and Differentiation: Education Policies in Norway. In Kolltveit, Kristoffer; Allern, Elin Haugsgjerd; Braut-Hegghammer, Målfrid & Rasch, Bjørn Erik (Ed.), Oxford Handbook of Norwegian Politics. Oxford University Press. ISSN 9780198888581. p. 570–589. doi: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198888581.013.0030. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Abstract This chapter presents an overview of education policies and policy debates in Norway. To this end, it encompasses three main parts. First, the chapter provides an overview of the normative foundation and structure of the Norwegian education system. Second, the chapter contains a summary of key policy developments in Norwegian education policy since 1945, including primary and secondary education, vocational education, and higher education. The third part benchmarks the performance of the Norwegian education system against other Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries, highlighting key policy challenges and trade-offs. Overall, Norwegian education policy has a strong focus on ensuring societal equality through a common school with minimal differentiation. However, this also creates tensions regarding the question of the right balance between equal treatment of all pupils and providing space for individual differentiation.

• Finger, Tobias; Biel, Jonas; Stockemer, Daniel; Niemann, Arne; Reinke, VIncent & Jungblut, Jens Patrick Wilhelm [Show all 9 contributors for this article] (2025). The Football Effect: Comparing European Identity Between Fans and Non-Fans. Contemporary European Politics. 2(3-4). doi: 10.1002/cep4.70003. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  The formation of European identities is a pivotal issue for the cohesion of the European community in times of multiple crises. Based on theories of identity formation through habitualisation, we posit that football fandom—a ubiquitous, emotional, strongly Europeanised activity in everyday life—holds unique potential for fostering a sense of a shared European identity. Football fandom provides habitual contact, interaction and experiences of Europe, shaping fans' European identity formations. We use new representative survey data from four European countries (Germany, Norway, Poland, and Spain) to examine the relationship between football fandom and various dimensions of European identity. The results largely support our hypotheses, demonstrating that football fans exhibit stronger attachments to Europe and the EU, greater support for European integration and a more positive assessment of EU membership than non-fans.

• Shpaizman, Ilana; Valgermo, Jon Bøe & Jungblut, Jens Patrick Wilhelm (2025). Power in the Pre-Decisional Stage: Stability Sentences and Non-Decisions in Coalition Agreements in Israel and Norway. Policy Studies Journal (PSJ). ISSN 0190-292X. doi: 10.1111/psj.70044. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Non-decisions are manifestations of power in the policy process. This paper shows that in parliamentary democracies with coalition governments, stability sentences in coalition agreements entail non-decisions. These sentences address policies which coalition partners explicitly decide not to change. Since coalition agreements provide the policy agenda for the incoming government, explicit statements maintaining the status quo are non-decisions that matter for future policymaking. Most research on coalition agreements focuses on changes that the incoming coalition wishes to promote. This paper investigates which issues coalition partners choose to safeguard from potential change and what can explain why they do so. The paper is based on an analysis of all coalition agreements from the last four decades in Norway and Israel. It finds that stability sentences address divisive and conflict-laden policy issues that, if placed on the agenda, could threaten the survival of the coalition. Moreover, they are repeated often across multiple government coalitions and represent a policy agenda that is distinct from the usual decision-oriented one.

• Finger, Tobias; Reinke, VIncent; Biel, Jonas; Niemann, Arne; Jungblut, Jens Patrick Wilhelm & Kossakowski, Radoslaw [Show all 9 contributors for this article] (2025). Expert Interviews. In Biel, Jonas; Finger, Tobias; Niemann, Arne & Reinke, VIncent (Ed.), Uniting Europe through Football. The Interplay between Fandom, Identity and Social Cohesion. Palgrave Macmillan. ISSN 9783031771170. p. 199–245. Full text in Research Archive
• Maassen, Peter; Elken, Mari & Jungblut, Jens Patrick Wilhelm (2025). De facto Academic Freedom in the European Union – Threats and Trends. European Review. ISSN 1062-7987. doi: 10.1017/S1062798725000134. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Academic freedom is widely accepted both as a fundamental value of present-day higher education and as a prerequisite for well-functioning democratic societies. Yet, in recent years, major concerns about the state of academic freedom in Europe have been raised by higher education stakeholders, including policymakers and members of the academic community. In response to these concerns, the European Parliament launched in 2022 its Academic Freedom Forum. The studies undertaken for the Forum show that academic freedom is eroding in practically all EU Member States. In this article we will discuss these studies and, on the basis of their findings, introduce six categories of threats to academic freedom in Europe. These categories allow for more structured studies on academic freedom in Europe and can contribute to a better understanding of differences and similarities in academic freedom trends among European countries.

• Svartefoss, Silje Marie; Jungblut, Jens Patrick Wilhelm; Aksnes, Dag W.; Kolltveit, Kristoffer & Leeuwen, Thed van (2024). Explaining research performance: investigating the importance of motivation. SN Social Sciences. 4(6), p. 1–24. doi: 10.1007/s43545-024-00895-9. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  In this article, we study the motivation and performance of researchers. More specifically, we investigate what motivates researchers across different research fields and countries and how this motivation influences their research performance. The basis for our study is a large-N survey of economists, cardiologists, and physicists in Denmark, Norway, Sweden, the Netherlands, and the UK. The analysis shows that researchers are primarily motivated by scientific curiosity and practical application and less so by career considerations. There are limited differences across fields and countries, suggesting that the mix of motivational aspects has a common academic core less influenced by disciplinary standards or different national environments. Linking motivational factors to research performance, through bibliometric data on publication productivity and citation impact, our data show that those driven by practical application aspects of motivation have a higher probability for high productivity. Being driven by career considerations also increases productivity but only to a certain extent before it starts having a detrimental effect.

• Squevin, Pierre Louis Daniel; Pattyn, Valérie; Jungblut, Jens Patrick Wilhelm & Blum, Sonja (2024). There, across the border – political scientists and their boundary-crossing work. Policy sciences. ISSN 0032-2687. doi: 10.1007/s11077-024-09530-z. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Scholars may be diversely engaged in boundary-crossing work, either staying more confined in academic settings, or reaching out to the policy world. Despite growing theoretical attention, there is little empirical knowledge on the extent to which scholars indeed engage in boundary-crossing activities, and the conditions that foster or jeopardize this. We use original survey data from European political scientists to investigate how frequently they ‘travel’ to the policy world, what patterns of engagement are visible, and how these are determined. The article introduces a typology capturing different boundary-crossing profiles and shows that political scientists are rather frequent travelers across the border between academia and the policy world. Yet, individual characteristics matter. Having (had) a position outside of academia has an especially strong effect on the likelihood of boundary-crossing. Our results also reveal that not every scholar has the same chance to be involved, depending on gender or seniority.

• Borlaug, Siri Brorstad & Jungblut, Jens (2024). The Limits of Universities' Strategic Capacity for Steering Research. In Sivertsen, Gunnar & Langfeldt, Liv (Ed.), Challenges in research policy: evidence-based policy briefs with recommendations. Springer Nature. ISSN 9783031695797. p. 95–104. doi: 10.1007/978-3-031-69580-3_12. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Today’s universities are under pressure from multiple directions. The massive growth in students and staff has led to, among others, a high competition between individual academics and universities for external funding. Studies highlight that the quest for external funding has led to a narrowing down of research topics in terms of breadth and scope, and some call for universities to more actively use their strategic capacity and leadership to create environments that also provide scholars with incentives for scholarly renewal, innovation, and research beyond what is in high demand from external funders. However, the definition of strategic capacity, challenges related to it, and how universities and their leadership may use it are not always clearly defined. This chapter addresses these issues.

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• Vukasovic, Martina; Elken, Mari & Jungblut, Jens (2026). Coupling of rules and practices in higher education.
• Elken, Mari; Jungblut, Jens & Maassen, Peter (2025). Academic Freedom and European Knowledge Policy. Full text in Research Archive
• Elken, Mari; Jungblut, Jens & Maassen, Peter (2025). Academic Freedom and European Knowledge Policy. Full text in Research Archive
• Jungblut, Jens & O’Shea, Sarah (2024). Foreword. Studies in Higher Education. ISSN 0307-5079. doi: 10.1080/03075079.2024.2332061. Full text in Research Archive
• Jungblut, Jens & Maassen, Peter (2024). The reosion of de facto academic freedom in Europe: underlying factors and policy options. Full text in Research Archive
• Borlaug, Siri Brorstad & Jungblut, Jens (2024). The limits of universities’ strategic capacity for steering research : R-QUEST Policy Brief. doi: https:/hdl.handle.net/11250/3136495. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Today’s universities are under pressure from multiple directions. The massive growth in students and staff has led to, amongst others, a high competition between individual academics, and universities for external funding. Studies highlight that the quest for external funding has led to a narrowing down of research topics in terms of breadth and scope, and some call for universities to more actively use their strategic capacity and leadership to create environments that also provide scholars with incentives for scholarly renewal, innovation and research beyond what is in high demand from external funders. However, the definition of strategic capacity, challenges related to it, and how universities and their leadership may use it are not always clearly defined. This policy brief addresses these challenges.

• O’Shea, Sarah & Jungblut, Jens (2024). How do universities compete? Studies in Higher Education. ISSN 0307-5079. doi: 10.1080/03075079.2024.2399371. Full text in Research Archive

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