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 fulfil 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.