ABSTRACT
Just as we can think of universities as being either the agents or the objects of changes towards sustainable development, so we can see them as the agents or the objects of wider changes in society. This means that any discussion of institutional change management in relation to sustainable development takes place within a context of competing narratives about higher education and social change in general. This would be complicated enough if every individual academic or administrator, and every institution, adhered consistently to just one of the available narratives. They do not and, in fact, they often cannot. For example, we have seen already that the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) is currently powerfully supporting both one agenda, which sees English universities as drivers of increased national economic competitiveness, and another, which sees a need for those institutions to respond to a global sustainability agenda that has enhanced equity in international relations at its heart. Those within HEFCE who are responsible for these different strands of its work are well-informed and principled people. How can this situation be?
