The Danish UNIK Initiative: An NPM-Inspired Mechanism to Steer Higher Education

Abstract

This series aims to explore the globalization of higher education and the impact this has had on education systems around the world including East Asia, Africa, the Middle East, Europe and the US. Analyzing HE systems and policy this series will provide a comprehensive overview of how HE within different nations and/or regions is responding to the new age of universal mass higher education.

National policies as drivers of organizational change in universities: A string of reinforcing reforms

“…At the same time, the restructuring of the nonacademic workforce clearly lagged behind in German universities although facing reforms and the same transnational pressures as those in Denmark. These variations align with assertions that the Danish university system is one of the most intensively reformed in Europe (Aagaard & de Boer, 2017), making Denmark an interesting case for an examination of the links between transnational pressures, state-led reforms, and local staff changes (Flyvbjerg, 2006).…”

“…Denmark, previously characterized as a slow and pragmatic adopter of international research policy ideas (Aagaard & Mejlgaard, 2012;Hansen, 2002), has during the latest decade repeatedly been singled out as a trailblazer among the European countries (Aagaard & de Boer, 2017;Bleiklie & Michelsen, 2019;Hansen, Geschwind, et al, 2019;Kallerud, 2006). In particular, the intensity of reform accelerated after a change of government in 2001, which led to a sweeping reform process with the aim of transforming Danish universities into key players in the global knowledge economy.…”

Are national university systems becoming more alike? Long-term developments in staff composition across five countries

“…The claims that the Nordic countries have been particularly reform-intensive in the last two decades (Aagaard and de Boer 2017;Bleiklie 2009) also corresponds with particularly extensive staff changes, especially in Denmark. Compared to these two fellow state-centered systems in the north, the German system may rightly be described as a laggard in terms of restructuring the nonacademic workforce (Hüther and Krücken 2018, p. 1).…”

Non-academic staff's part in transforming academia: as irrelevant as their label suggests?

“…Besides Denmark, this group includes Finland, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden. This alliance between strong academic oligarchies and generous welfare states has been characterized by pragmatism and a strong academic orientation (Aagaard & de Boer, 2017;Clark, 1986). In a global perspective, such favourable conditions allowed these university systems to be conservative, reluctant reformers until the turn of the millennium, when weary governments eventually forced them to become eager reformers (Bleiklie, 2009).…”