Mergers and missions: investigating consequences for system diversity

In recent decades, many higher education systems around the world have been exposed to institutional mergers. While the rationale for mergers has often been related to issues of improved quality, effectiveness and/or efficiency at the institutional level, fewer studies have analysed how mergers may affect institutional diversity within the higher education landscape. Focusing on institutional missions, the current study analyses the strategic plans of both merged and non-merged institutions in Norway. The key finding is that mergers may not necessarily reduce system level diversity, although mergers indeed may affect the organisational mission of individual institutions.

Regionale universiteter og utdanningspolitiske paradokser

The chapter seeks to shed light on university reforms in Norway since 1980 and asks how well-designed the reforms are regarding their capacity to strengthen the impact of universities in the regions where they are located. The chapter starts by asking how well-suited universities are to meet the expectations they face in the regions where they are located. It argues that the institutions in many ways have organizational characteristics – as academic and bureaucratic organizations – that are not well-suited to fulfilling varied and dynamic local needs. Subsequently the chapter analyzes the reforms and changes characterizing higher education – in terms of growth, internationalization and standardization – that may contribute to understanding the current situation. Finally, it takes a closer look at ongoing reforms and transformational processes and their indications of possible trends in the coming years. Here, changing expectations and tensions arising from multiple goals are emphasized in order to understand the obstacles faced by government attempts to enhance labor market relevance by means of structural reforms with institutional mergers as a main ingredient.

Transforming finnish higher education: institutional mergers and conflicting academic identities

<p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"> </p><p class="RESUMENCURSIVA">As in many other European countries also Finnish higher education system has witnessed several reforms over the past decade many of which originate in efforts to make more competitive and affordable higher education system. The aim of this paper is to describe the changes and institutional mergers in particular that have taken place in Finnish higher education and explore what kind of academic identities are constructed amid changes in Finnish higher education. The paper shows that the mergers followed the objectives set by the Finnish Ministry of Education and Culture for the structural development of the higher education system and that the creation of a joint culture for merged institutions was important yet challenging. The paper also argues that due to these external changes in Finnish higher education there is a tendency to move from a traditional notion of an academic toward more hybrid and dynamic understanding of what it is being an academic in the 21st century.</p><p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;" lang="EN-US"><br /></span></p>

Teaching and Research: The Canterbury Declaration and Popper's Legacy for Teacher Educators

The year 2004 was a watershed one for teacher education. The first results from the Performance Based Research Fund (PBRF) were announced, a Tertiary Education Commission report suggested that there should be clearer differences between the various tertiary education institutions, and two universities/ colleges of education have merged, with the remaining two pairs in negotiation. These events have brought particularly strong new pressures to bear upon teacher education. Research has assumed greater importance, both as a means to increased productivity and in its role as an underpinning to good teaching. That teaching be research-directed is both a legislative requirement and a philosophical imperative. One of the most elegant justifications is to be found in the Canterbury Declaration of 1945 where the hand of Karl Popper is clearly evident. In this article the legacy of his views for teacher education are explored in relation to PBRF and the institutional mergers.