Research into Higher Education: Processes and Structures. Information on Higher Education in Sweden.

Overview & Synopsis

Taken from an international conference organized by the Swedish National Board of Universities and Colleges, the report consists of six overview papers, five reports from discussion groups, and a transcript of the concluding discussion. The conference was designed to allow an informal exchange between researchers and practitioners in the field of higher education, to achieve conceptual clarification and problem identification, to indicate policy implications, and to specify priorities for future research efforts. Introductory speeches by Hans Lowbeer and Lennart Levin are followed by papers on higher education as a system: "Process and Structure in Higher Education System (Tony Becher and Maurice Kogan) and "Contradiction and Innovation in Higher Education and Learning--A Research Proposal" (Ulf Himmelstrand). Papers in a third section address the role of higher education in society: "Higher Education and Society--An Analysis of the Relationships from a Structural and a Historical Point of View" (Yrjo-Paavo Hayrynen) and "Elite and Mass Higher Education--American Models and European Realities" (Martin Trow). The fourth section on research and development organization and planning contains the following papers: "Interactions Between Practitioners and Social Scientists in Research and Development" (Edmund Dahlstrom) and "Research and Development for Higher Education in Sweden--Some Conceptual and Policy Problems" (Rune Premfors and Bjorn Wittrock). The final section focuses on discussion of such topics as whether diversity and pluralism are possible in a unified higher education system. Appended are the conference program, a list of participants, and a list of publications. (PHR)