Mergers in Higher Education: The Experience from Northern Europe [Paperback]

This book addresses the critical knowledge gaps of mergers involving higher education institutions. It is based on a comparative research project (spring 2013-spring 2015) investigating the phenomena of mergers involving higher education institutions across the Nordic countries  Norway, Sweden, Finland and Denmark. The study involved close to 30 scholars from the region, and aimed at shedding critical light on, and providing novel contributions around, the following key aspects: 

• Conceptual and theoretical approaches  strengths and limitations - towards the study of the phenomena of mergers in higher education; 
  
• Historical developments, leading to significant structural changes in the domestic higher education landscape, and, in turn, how mergers have been used as a policy/institutional mechanism to foster adaptation to a new external environment at the local, national, regional and international levels; 
  
• The complex dynamicsinherent to merger processes by undertaking an in-depth investigation of a series of selected case studies, with a particular focus on the black-box associated with the implementation process;
  
• The implications of the findings as regards future policy and strategic endeavours, theory development and future research agenda.    

Part I: Setting the Stage.- Chapter 1: A world full of mergers: The Nordic countries in a global context. R?mulo Pinheiro, Lars Geschwind and Timo Aarrevaara.- Part II: Path Dependencies & System Dynamics.- Chapter 2: Mergers in Norwegian higher education. Svein Kyvik and Bj?rn Stensaker.- Chapter 3: Conflicting Rationalities: Mergers and Consolidations in Swedish Higher Edlcƒ