Elke Weyer sheds light on the question why, after more than three decades of higher education reforms in some countries, it is still not clear whether the reforms have achieved their stated goals, i.e., to create autonomous universities that meet political expectations. By back-casting real-life decision-making processes, the author reconstructs how different types of actors influenced the academic governance of higher education institutions in the context of these reforms. This approach highlights how numerous changes in governance and organisation affect the relationships between actors and how they promote their interests.