Strategic Actor-Hood and Internal Transformation (original) (raw)

Global Challenges, Local Responses in Higher Education, 2014

Abstract

In most European countries, the Nordic region included, higher education (HE) has undergone a profound transformation in the last couple of decades. This process is partly a result of substantial changes in society - such as declining birth rates, an ageing population and the rise of a global knowledge-based economy - in tandem with broad policy efforts aimed at modernising the public sector (Peters & Savoie, 1998) as a means of guaranteeing the future sustainability of the (Nordic) welfare state (Christiansen, Petersen, & Haave, 2005). Across Europe, higher education institutions (HEIs) are increasingly expected to respond more efficiently to the needs of society. Amongst other things, this implies taking on board a new set of functions and societal expectations: economic development and innovation (Pinheiro, Benneworth, & Jones, 2012); fostering interdisciplinary collaborations (Nowotny, Scott, & Gibbons, 2001) and carrying out activities in a more efficient (Frølich, Huisman, Slipersæter, Stensaker, & Bótas 2013), professionalised (Gornitzka & Larsen, 2004) and socially-accountable (Stensaker & Harvey, 2011) manner. In order to respond to this rather complex set of external demands, HEIs have been adapting their internal goals, strategies and organisational structures (Beerkens, 2008; Pinheiro, 2013) and strengthening their core competencies, not least in the realm of research (Kyvik & Lepori, 2010; Aksnes et al., 2012). Fiercer competition - for students, staff, funding and prestige (Kehm & Stensaker, 2009) - is leading HEIs to seek the benefits associated with economies of scale, e.g. through formal mergers (Pinheiro, Aarevaara, & Geschwind, 2013). Some have argued that what we are witnessing is a move from HEIs as loosely-coupled systems (Clark, 1983; Birnbaum, 1988) towards them being more tightly-integrated, strategic, organisational actors (Whitley, 2008; Ramirez, 2010).

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