Transformation of European Universities

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Georg Krücken, since 10/2011
• Subject Area: Education Systems and Educational Institutions
• Term: from 2009 to 2013
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 134983056

TRUE addresses the Governance and Steering topic in the EUROHESC call for proposals. The aim of the research is to clarify how steering and governance have affected organisational characteristics of higher education institutions (HEis) and how this has affected the differentiation of the European higher education (HE) landscape. The transformation will be analysed by means of three perspectives: 1) universalism assumes that universities are specific organisations; 2) instrumentalism assumes that universities are just like any kind of Organisation; and 3) institutionalism assuming that the crucial question is the fit between the norms and values of universities and reformers. The TRUE project will bring together researchers from eight different countries, making it a truly European project. The CRP focuses on three interrelated themes: governance and steering, organisational change and the higher education landscape. The IPs and APs have divided the subthemes between them in order to study the subthemes comparatively in a systematic way. The CRP has accordingly adopted a procedure for a common eight country database based on five data collection strategies: a) National cases studies based on a common design, realised by national teams. b) Case studies of three individual HEis in each country (24 overall). c) Joint survey of all HEis in the involved countries, developed collectively and delivered nationally. d) In-depth comparative analyses of national policies and Instruments: e) Collection of common data for a basic characterization of HEis. The main CRP deliverables will be a series of four books providing comparative analyses on each of the three sub themes: 1) policy, governance and steering, 2) organisational change, 3} the higher education landscape, and 4) a comparative book on the TRUE main topic, the transformation of universities in Europe, where the three subthemes are brought together.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Switzerland, United Kingdom
• Participating Persons: Professor Dr. Ivar Bleiklie; Professor Dr. Jürgen Enders; Dr. Nicoline Frolich; Professor Dr. Jeroen Huisman; Dr. Benedetto Lepori; Professor Dr. Antonio Magahaes
• Ehemalige Antragstellerin: Privatdozentin Dr. Barbara Kehm, until 10/2011