Comparative studies of higher education systems reveal three striking features: mass participation is a universal feature across developed economies, great variance both in the mix of public/private contribution to student costs and, thirdly, in the mix of public/private provision. A fourth dimension of variance, independent of whether public or private institutions predominate, is their degree of operational and ‘entrepreneurial’ autonomy from state control.  Through a multi-method comparative case study approach this ongoing research project aims to explore the political determinants of this variance. The first dimension has been recently emphasized by higher education specialists such as Baker (2014) and Marginson (2016), while the political determinants of the second dimension (public/private funding mix) has recently been explored ably by scholars such as Jungblut (2014), Vukasovic (2013), and Garritzman (2015, 2016) with whom I am interacting in conferences such as ECPR & CHER. My own efforts center upon the third and fourth dimensions; namely the politics of the mix of public/private provision and the degree of institutional operational autonomy and at ECPR 2016 presented a study of the Japanese case. I am also working on a related project on the ‘campus as catalyst’, recently on an Israeli case.