352 research outputs found
Conflicting Rationalities: Mergers and Consolidations in Swedish Higher Education Policy
No full textThe Value in Comparing Organizational Fields and Forms
No full textFollowing the spirit of an earlier volume in the series focusing on ‘Comparative Approaches to Organizational Research’, the mandate of the current volume is to provide a comparative account of dynamics across two organizational fields – health care and higher education – and, subsequently, two specific types of organizational forms – hospitals and universities. In so doing, we take a broader perspective encompassing various conceptual and theoretical points of departure emanating from, mostly, the institutional literature in the social sciences (and its various perspectives), but also from public policy and administration literatures – of relevance to scholars and the communities of practice working within either field. In this introductory paper to the volume, we provide a brief overview of developments across the two organizational fields and illuminate on the most important scholarly traditions underpinning the study of both system dynamics as a whole as well as universities and hospitals as organizations and institutions. We conclude by reflecting on the implication of the volume’s key findings in regards to comparative research within organizational studies
Evaluation Practices and Impact : Overload?
No full textQC 20190502Part of ISBN 978-3-030-11738-2, 978-3-030-11737-5</p
Governing Performance in the Nordic Universities : Where Are We Heading and What Have We Learned?
No full textQC 20190502Part of ISBN 978-3-030-11737-5, 978-3-030-11738-2</p
The Changing Roles of Academic Leaders : Decision-Making, Power, and Performance
No full textQC 20190502Part of ISBN 978-3-030-11738-2, 978-3-030-11737-5</p
Legitimizing Change in Higher Education: Exploring the Rationales Behind Major Organizational Restructuring
No full textThis paper explores the complex mix of rationales behind major change initiatives in the Swedish higher education sector. In three case studies, the paper investigates how changes are motivated, communicated and made sense of by higher education institutions. The cases show that the external drivers, related to the need for quality improvement, resource accumulation and reputation-building, are highlighted in the official communication by the institutional management. Interviews with various internal and external stakeholders reveal additional, internal rationales such as economic rationalization opportunities and the personal motives of individuals. It is argued that the notion of legitimacy is fundamental to the understanding of this mix of rationales. References to the state and the EU are frequent and so are similar comparable universities and the need to adapt to globally circulated ideas. Furthermore, administrative rationales are not enough to make a change process legitimate in these cases. A grander, structural rationale related to quality and reputation is also perceived to be required.</p
Performance in Higher Education Institutions and Its Variations in Nordic Policy
No full textThe need for greater efficiency, productivity and quality in the higher education sector has triggered increased governmental interest towards different mechanisms of accountability, especially evaluation and performance measurement. This interest has developed over a relatively long period of time, but it has now reached its culmination point in many ways. For instance, advances in citation tracking, performance data collection and databases and the professionalisation of evaluative practices and methods have opened new avenues for verifying accountability. This chapter offers definitions for the key concepts used throughout the book, as follows: accountability, evaluation, and performance measurement and management. Each section is followed by a short contextualisation of the concept in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden. The chapter ends with a short discussion about the policy convergence between Nordic countries and the reasons for it.QC 20190507Part of ISBN 978-3-030-11737-5, 978-3-030-11738-2</p
Technical Universities
No full textThis Open Access book analyses the past, present and future of the technical university as a single faculty independent institution. The point of departure is a view of changing academic realities, through which the identity as a technical university is challenged and reconstituted. More specifically, the book connects the development of technical universities to changes in the structure and dimensioning of national higher education systems, to changes in the disciplinary basis of academic research and to changes in the governance of higher education institutions. Introduced in the age of industrialization, polytechnical schools rose to prominence in many national settings during the second half of the 19th century. Over time, new technologies have been developed and incorporated into the repertoire, and waves of academisation have swept over the former polytechnics, transforming them into technical universities. Their traditions and brands, however, prevail. Several technical universities are included among the most prestigious academic institutions of their nations and the training of engineers and engineering research still enjoys a high level of prestige and national priority, e.g. in the context of innovation and industrial policy. But the world keeps changing, and the higher education sector with it. Will technical universities have an equally attractive position within university systems in the decades to come
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