ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the transnational governance of higher education (HE) by focusing on the production and uses of ranking lists of universities and more broadly HE institutions. Specialised research institutions like the German Center for Higher Education and international organisations like the OECD as producers of data have become central in HE governance as institutions of HE have become global governable objects. The development of new symbolic technologies of governance such as ranking lists of HE institutions has a broader significance. Economic development is dependent on the diffusion and sharing of knowledge. The main structuring principle of the transnational field of HE is between epistemic governance and non-epistemic governance of HE, that is governance that follows the interest of science or governance that follows the interest of society. The transnational refers to over the border activities that are not part of official politics or ritualised international cooperation.
