This dissertation studies the responses of Portuguese polytechnics and Dutch hogescholen to new policy demands. These non-university higher education organizations focus on training professionals through practical learning approaches in close collaboration with regional/local industries and communities. In the past decade, such organizations have been undergoing changes related to their governance and educational provisions. National governments demanded them to focus on a research mandate and innovate educational provisions and training to be more responsive to the needs of local labor markets, industries, and communities. Through a qualitative comparative analysis and utilizing several conceptual streams from the new institutional theory, the dissertation shows that non-university higher education organizations in the two countries are responding differently to the new policy demands challenging the expectations of convergence and uniformity of higher education systems in Europe. These different responses are a result of organizational and individual experiences of the national higher education field, leading to the argument that organizational and individual action in response to new policy demands is defined within the context of the boundaries of the experienced higher education field. This is a novel contribution to the scientific field of higher education adding to previous studies on either intra-organizational processes in responses to new policy or field dynamics. The dissertation focuses on explicating the interdependencies between the two in influencing specific policy outcomes. The results of this dissertation have significant implications for national and European policymaking initiatives. They suggest that policymakers should consider promoting coherent policy frameworks organized in negotiation with national and local institutions with vested interest in non-university education when designing a new policy demand, while promoting European collaborative trends within the non-university higher ...