This book carries forward the findings of an international research project, first published in 2000, on the radical higher education reforms introduced since the 1970s. It is based upon documents, statistics and extensive interviews with politicians, institutional leaders and academics from a range of institutions and disciplines in three countries. It is one of only a handful of contemporary comparative studies that combine strong empirical research with theoretical analysis developed within a thematic rather than a country based framework.

Drawing together the implications of studies of Sweden, Norway and England in a set of comparative analyses, the authors assess the reforms of the higher education systems on three distinct levels, the state, the institution and the individual. They examine change in government policy, in the leadership and management of higher education institutions and the impact on academic identities and the academic profession.

Zusammenfassung
Chicago, the Leverhulme Trust (for an emeritus fellowship awarded to Maurice Kogan which enabled a particular part of the English study to be completed) and to the Bank of Sweden Tercentenary Foundation which provided funds assisting us with the last stage of the project and its dissemination. The list of names of the editorial team on the cover of this book in no sense exhausts the account of its authorship or of those responsible for the contr- utory country studies. Our equal partners in the whole exercise have been Steve Hanney (England), Berit Askling and Susan Marton (Sweden), and Roar Høstaker and Agnete Vabø (Norway). The names of individual authors are to be found at the beginning of each chapter. Throughout the five years of our project we have enjoyed an intellectual camaraderie which enabled the expe- ence of different cultures and systems to flow into our research. We are also indebted to Tom Kogan for expert copy editing of the first v- sion and to Deana Parker for producing a camera ready version of this second edition. Our first publishers, on selling out the first edition, arbitrarily took the book out of print. We have been fortunate in finding new publishers, Springer, for this second edition which has given us the opportunity to update our macro data about changes in systems and advance further some of our arguments.

Inhalt
Themes, Concepts And Methods.- Comparison and Theories.- History, Policy And Structure.- Higher Education Policies: Historical Overview.- Policy Regimes and Policy Making.- The State and Higher Education.- Higher Education Institutions.- Academics In A Context Of Policy And System Change.- Policy Change and the Academic Profession.- Academic Identities.- Conclusions.- Change and Continuity: Some Conclusions.