Mergers in Higher Education: The Experience from Northern Europe

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 dynamics inherent 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.