ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that the complex and contextualised nature of policy-making precludes a theoretical 'one size fits all' approach to understanding the policy cycle or a standardised conceptualisation of how policy is made across jurisdictions and policy domains. It presents an overview of conceptual and theoretical approaches used in higher education literature to analyse policy-making. The chapter also presents several case illustrations examples of how policy has been forged in Canadian higher education and the lessons learnt from them. It focuses on presenting some contemporary theories, and provides examples of studies and scholarship where they have been employed. The chapter also focuses on four areas of higher education policy in Canada: funding; research and development (R&D); accessibility and student assistance; and internationalisation. This overview of the research on higher education policy-making, taken together across paradigms and frameworks, tells us that policy-making is complex, contested and nuanced.
