Autonomy is seen as a necessity for universities to properly discharge their mission. It is often defined as the university’s power to govern its own affairs without external interference. Such a definition, however, ignores
the complicated nature of autonomy. Meanwhile, the degree of university autonomy depends not only upon how much room for self-government is left to a university, but also upon how much ability a university has to fulfill its mission.
Hence, imposing one set of criteria to measure university autonomy in different countries and claiming that the results are the reality of university autonomy may be a doubtful procedure.