The coronation of university presidents:: applying the Universite 2000 and Universite du troisieme millenaire plans in the Rhone-Alps Region

Policies of higher education provide evidence of recent trends in the actions undertaken by public authorities. Local authorities are ever more implicated, since the places for defining objectives are being decentralized and contracts are more often being used to formalize relations between partners. Despite the increasingly "polycentric" patterns of the parties involved, civil servants in the Ministry of Education still maintain control over setting objectives. The greater investment made by local authorities, who allege that universities depend financially on the central government, reinforces the presidents of universities. (c) 2007 Elsevier Masson SAS. Tous droits reserves.