AbstractFew of today's reforms in higher education are not, in one way or another, justified by invoking the need to be more responsive to ‘the market’. But what is understood by this term, as too the policies which result from it, vary widely across countries. This article, which examines current developments in France and in the Federal Republic of Germany, suggests that the concept of the market and of competition is interpreted in very different ways and is perceived by academia with similar variety. It concludes that the policies developed in Britain are far more radical in their undiluted application of ideologically‐driven measures than their two major European par