Institutions of higher education and the nationalist state

Significant changes in state economic priorities are likely to have a formative and fateful effect on institutions of higher education. Yet economic accounts cannot themselves explain changes in the economic priorities of nationalist states, in part because of the ideological character of such states. The nationalist state's influence on institutions of higher education is often indirect, involving the interactions of social and political actors who are themselves influenced by prevailing social ideologies. Social ideologies contribute to shifts in state economic priorities, and these changes can indirectly but significantly influence the trajectory of institutions of higher education. A longitudinal care study of a Canadian distance-education university demonstrates the means by which nationalist sentiment encouraged a shift in state economic priorities, which in turn created a welcoming social climate for a new university's consumerist model of education.