Raising competitiveness is a driving force behind education reforms. International organisations like the OECD are important actors in fuelling the dialogue and competition between national education systems. To better understand the motivation behind national education reforms it is essential to research the OECD's way of setting agenda for its member countries.
This dissertation explores the OECD's history, methods of influence and relations with other international organisations. The study is based on extensive source material and interviews with prominent experts from the OECD and academia. The emphasis of research lies on a case study, which analyses how the OECD Thematic Review of Tertiary Education has been utilised in structural reforms of higher education in Finland. The findings of the case study of Finland are compared to the ones of a second case study on the United Kingdom.