Conflicting rationalities: Mergers and consolidations in swedish higher education policy

Abstract

This chapter analyses the preconditions and forms of consolidation in the Swedish higher education system over the last decade. After a rapid development and expansion of the system between 1994 and 2004, there have been several initiatives to consolidate and streamline the sector. There have been few direct interventions intended to trigger reorganisations, mergers and acquisitions; instead, the political system has primarily incentivised universities to seek new organisational models and arrangements. This means that the reorganisation of the higher education system has been marked by experimentation with several different models and initiatives, to determine which models have the best fit with the parties involved. With the advent of a new government in 2014, the issue of mergers has been discarded and universities are again primarily seeking to restore and ascertain their independence. Hence, we analyse mergers in Swedish higher education as a game between rational actors aiming to clarify the gains and potential losses of mergers – rather than a top-down process of forced reorganisations as in many other countries.