The Transformation of Tertiary Education

The purpose of this book is to give an analysis of important change processes in the non-university tertiary education sector in Norway. This part of the educational system has undergone a radical transformation over the last 30-40 years. In 1968, the gov ernment decided to establish a new type of higher education institutions called district colleges, and in the 1970s a large number of small and vocationally oriented institutions for teacher traing, enigneering, health educaiton, social work, etc were upg raded to higher education institutions. In 1976, regional steering boards were established in order to coordinate non-university higher education in each of 17 regions; a reform that proved to be unsuccessful, and in 1994, all these institutions were amal gamated into 26 state colleges. The formalisation of a binary system in 1994 is now under pressure from colleges with university ambitions. The plan is to analyse these transformation processes in an international perspective, comparing with parallel de velopments in other western European countries, and drawing heavily on theories of change processes in order to make the book interesting to an international audience, as well as to the Norwegian higher education community.