This article provides a comparative analysis of recent governance reforms in both Finnish and Portuguese higher education institutions (HEIs), following the OECD’s recent reviews of both countries’ tertiary education systems. While in the case of Finland the major problem was identified as being a lack of entrepreneurialism, Portugal was considered to lack effective, strategic higher education planning as well as innovative, flexible and responsive HEIs. The review teams pointed to common issues, despite different country contexts. As they recommended very similar solutions for reforming the legal status of universities, this encouraged national governments to undertake reforms according to their specific needs. By pinpointing problems, the OECD was seen to play an important role in this process and its recommendations proved to be close to the ideas of new public management.