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FINNUT-Program for forskning og innovasjon i utdanningssektoren

Re-Structure: Redesigning the Norwegian higher education landscape

Alternative title: Re-Structure: Redesing av landskapet for høyere utdanning i Norge

Awarded: NOK 15.0 mill.

As a result of the Structural Reform that was launched in 2015, the higher education landscape in Norway has substantially changed. Many universities and colleges have merged into larger units and as a result of the reform, Norwegian higher education now also includes several large multi-campus universities and university colleges. The main goal of the reform is to achieve high quality in education and research, accompanied by goals related to regional development, efficiency and accessibility. This research-based evaluation examines the extent to which the reform brings Norwegian higher education closer to the goals and which factors contribute to their realization. The project studies the reform and ongoing processes in the merged universities and university colleges. Methods are document analysis and interviews with key actors in policy design; case studies of selected units which look in particular at the professional integration processes and the organizational processes aimed at realizing the aims of the reform; survey of employees at merged and non-merged institutions to investigate the effects of the reform on research, education, external interaction and organisation; quantitative indicators of activity (e.g. research output in the form of publications). Findings and analyses from the project show that the structural reform can be seen as as part of a long line of reforms in the sector - there are identified connections to the Quality Reform, reform proposals such as the Stjernø Committee's report and the SAK initiative which aimed to stimulate more cooperation, division of labor and concentration in the university and college sector. Ongoing organizational processes are also influenced by other change processes in the sector, such as the transition to a five-year teacher's master's degree, and the development of common guidelines for the health and social sciences. The structural reform was designed through an asymmetric dialogue in which the authorities and management at the educational institutions were the central actors. Our analyzes indicate that policy design and implementation were characterized by a lot of communication, including persuasion between these actors. Most of the merged institutions have chosen a model for academic organization that largely reflects the faculty structure before the merger. A review of the board papers of the merged institutions in the period 2016-2020 shows that everyone aims for academic reorganization to create institutions with stronger academic environments and a clear academic and strategic profile. How they assess this goal, and which priorities they base this process on, differs between the various institutions. This is reflected in their choice of faculty model, which varies from a traditional "discipline model" with a broad faculty structure to a narrower faculty structure based on a "professional" or "interdisciplinary" model. Analyses further show that the institutions have gained a broader and partly clearer subject profile through the fact that the proportion of study programs in various subject areas has increased and they have gained a strengthened master's degree profile - particularly through the changes in teacher training. There has also been an increase in the number of students per study programme. However, we see that graduates from the merged teaching centers are less satisfied with their education compared to candidates from non-merged teaching centres. Likewise, we see that academic staff at merged teaching sites are less positive about developments within study programs and their own research unit, compared to staff who have not been part of a merger. We also see that mergers put identities into play - both organizational and academic, and although academic staff see opportunities linked to a new organizational identity, they can experience major tensions linked to their own academic identity - both research and education. Furthermore, analyses show that mergers often involve increased distance to central decision-makers and processes. There are different forms of distance, of which geographical distance is a form that often hides other types of distance. The merged educational institutions increased their publication volume between 2011 and 2019. The largest institutions have the lowest growth, while the smaller institutions have a very high growth rate, which may reflect higher research ambitions at these educational institutions, including ambitions to obtain university status. However, research output varies between disciplines and at individual level. New analyses on the connection between organizational conditions and research show that characteristics such as employed managers, single or multiple campuses and institute size have limited significance for research activity. However, highly productive individuals do matter. The project is led by NIFU and carried out by an international research team.

The main outcome of the project is the contribution to improvement of the national and international knowledge base concerning higher education reforms. The project has had impact on the level of policy, institutions and also locally in academic communities. The project addressed (and addresses) a highly important theme for Norwegian policies for higher education and research: to what extent can system performance be improved by system (re)design? The project shows that it is challenging to identify changes related to the goals of the reform on the system level. However, it shows that there are distinct differences between the institutions' merger processes, where the specific aspects of the merger process play a significant role. As such the different institutions also have different conditions for goal attainment. The project has had a proactive take on assuring impact, including continuous publishing of policy-briefs, seminars for and with the sector where we have communicated relevant knowledge for policymakers, institutional leaders and academic staff concerning the challenges and outcomes of organisational (re-)design processes

This project answers to the call for a research-based evaluation of the structural reform that substantially changed the Norwegian higher education landscape. The project is designed as a multi-level and multi-method project, employing several disciplinary perspectives. The project applies two key empirical lenses: outcome-oriented and process-oriented. The outcome analysis is based on an extensive analysis of relevant indicators, while the analysis of merger processes focuses on capturing opportunities, tensions, solutions and unintended consequences. The project is organised in four work packages. In the first work package, the project analyses the reform itself, to uncover inconsistencies in the reform itself and how it interacts with previous and concurrent change processes in the system. In second work package, the project examines the processes within the merged institutions through a series of in-depth case studies. Given that we know that higher education institutions are institutionally complex organizations, the work package examines how institutions manage new forms of organizational hybridity that emerges as a result of merger processes, how they work with academic integration processes, and how the organisational processes that are set into motion contribute to fulfilling reform objectives. In the third work package, the project examines reform outputs through a broad range of quantitative indicators. The project will develop a novel database that includes various performance data on departmental level and will in this manner provide a more nuanced and detailed image of reform effects on academic environments. The fourth work package is focused on bringing the previous work packages together and answering the overarching question of the evaluation: To what extent does the reform bring the Norwegian higher education sector closer to the goals of the reform, and which factors condition the realization of these goals?

Publications from Cristin

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Funding scheme:

FINNUT-Program for forskning og innovasjon i utdanningssektoren