What is indicative of current developments in higher education institutions (HEI) is how the terms of knowledge that make up neoliberal rationalities and entrepreneurial practices are gaining influence at the expense of academic traditions. The logic behind these HEIs’ practices can be seen as the ambition to offer ’products’ in an educational ‘market’. Higher vocational education are especially exposed to these changes, in terms of how the selection and organisation of knowledge is closely related to local conditions of assigned relevance and the practical orientation of learning. In Basil Bernstein’s terms, ‘a horizontal knowledge orientation’ is prevailing. This on-going research project investigates current trends in Swedish HEIs. After the 2011 implementation of institutional autonomy reform in Sweden, HEIs have increasingly transformed into new public management-inspired organisations, where adjustments for employability and economic benefits have gained significance at the expense of academic and pedagogic values. The Swedish higher education sector as a whole, however, is characterised by diversity. The current project aims to examine which governing mechanisms and forms of autonomy are apparent in three cases of higher vocational education. The project design aims to uncover analytical distinctions of different actors' perceptions and objectives within the institutional conditions that form the meaning and objectives of education through interviews with academic professionals and decision makers in HEI. The initial results expose the intrinsic relationships among forms of collegiality, professional autonomy and management ideals in how frictions between academic integrity and adaptability to entrepreneurial practices are handled.