THE COLLEGE CHASE: HIGHER EDUCATION AND URBAN ENTREPRENEURIALISM IN ISRAEL

Local government initiative to attract colleges, in spite of being formally excluded from the higher education system, is shown to represent urban entrepreneurialism, in which strategies undertaken - reactive or proactive, competition or co-operation, and means of support - are influenced by location. However, such decentralised forms of local governance do not indicate a diminishing role of the central state, but rather reshape regulation - decisions reflecting greater pluralism, becoming more exposed to external pressures for market-oriented initiatives in high demand locations, and for publicly supported colleges in less attractive locations. Local entrepreneurialism is particularly influential at the intra-regional level, but saturation could emphasise the need to move from local entrepreneurialism to competitive regionalism. Copyright (c) 2007 by the Royal Dutch Geographical Society KNAG.