As performance measurement has become increasingly common at Nordic universities, concerns have been raised that disciplinary differences create difficulties in comparing academic performances. To better understand the potential of utilising performance measures for the management of academic work, this study explores how academics perceive governance and steering based on performance measurement. Building on an established typology of the disciplines that distinguishes the hard sciences from the soft and the applied sciences from the pure, we ask how academics perceive performance measurement depending on their disciplinary affiliation. The empirical material consists of a survey sent to academics in four Nordic countries. Our results show there are clear differences in the attitudes toward performance measurement between academics from different disciplines. Academics from the hard applied sciences are more positive about performance measurement than any other group, and academics from the soft pure sciences are more negative. These findings are consistent with notions about the poor adaptation of metrics to publication practices within the soft sciences and greater sensitivity to performance measurement among the applied sciences. The main contribution of the article is to provide empirical data that support the notion that performance measures are accepted to different degrees in different disciplines.

Universities are public organisations, which operate in a highly institutionalised environment. They are heavily dependent on public resources. As such, universities are susceptible to shifts in governance arrangements but are also far from being passive recipients of reform agendas. They face demands from multiple internal constituencies (academics, administrators, students, managers) and from a variety of external stakeholders. This chapter explores the interplay between governance arrangements resulting from policy shifts and university dynamics. It sets the stage for the book, asking the following research questions: (1) what characterises changes in governance regimes in Nordic universities in the last decade and a half, and (2) what effects have these changes had in the evolution of higher education systems? The chapter takes a comparative approach and identifies similarities and differences across the Nordic countries. This chapter serves as a frame of reference for the book and includes a common methods and data section.

Based on data from interviews conducted with 14 academic managers at two Swedish universities, this article investigates the consequences of the increasing prevalence of performance measurement in the higher education sector. The study contributes to the discussion of how performance measurement impacts academic work, focusing specifically on its influence on how meaning is created and recreated by academic managers. By applying the sensemaking perspective, as proposed by Weick ([1995. Sensemaking in Organizations. Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications]), the article explores seven properties of the sensemaking process. The study results demonstrate the influence of metrics on the process by which managers give meaning to academic work. Performance measures are interpreted by academic managers as important in acquiring resources, supporting decision-making, and enhancing organisational legitimacy. They also reinforce social scripts of competition and success, although they are often understood as being unable to indicate scientific quality. The consequence for sensemaking in teaching and research activities is that measurable performance is understood to be increasingly important. However, a notable finding from the study is that the managers are aware of how metrics promote specific forms of academic work and often attempt to balance these incentives by acknowledging the values and priorities that these metrics are unable to assess. This finding highlights the important role of academic managers as they counteract some of the pressure caused by various performance measures.

In recent years, performance-based research funding systems (PRFSs) have been introduced in all of the Nordic countries. In this chapter, we compare these systems and explore how their introduction is reflected within universities. Through interviews with academics, managers and administrators, we study how the performance measures of these systems are used at the university level and how that affects research activities. The results indicate that the introduction of PRFSs at the national level have had significant effects at the institutional level. The PRFSs contribute to the institutionalisation and consolidation of research metrics as the main way to describe research performances, and thus as the organising principles of research. Differences are also noted between the countries in the reactions of the university actors, which are believed to be a consequence of the variations of the PRFSs.

This paper examines whether subject-specific admission tests may allow Swedish higher education institutions to admit better-performing students. The performance of students admitted via a mathematics and physics aptitude test was reviewed with a focus on activity, retention, and credits earned, and the results were compared with students admitted in traditional ways, such as secondary school grade point averages (GPA). The results show that the students admitted in the test quota show a higher activity rate as well as a higher retention rate than most other students, but that they are not as successful as the GPA quota students in acquiring their intended credits. It is concluded that subject-specific admission tests seem to entail higher student motivation and that they therefore may be a valuable instrument to supplement traditional admission instruments. The observed differences in the study have generated a number of hypotheses that would need further study to fully understand the merits of different admission instruments.

The authors discuss Triple Helix collaborations in the context of regional competitiveness. Through an exploratory case study, they identify and analyse the impact of the establishment of industrial PhD schools for participating industry and universities. The study was conducted in Sweden in 2014 and focuses on three industry–university initiatives involving a total of 57 doctoral students, 9 universities and 39 companies. The results indicate that PhD schools based on the dynamics of the Triple Helix can be of great benefit for both industry and regional universities. In addition, the paper identifies critical success factors for industry–university collaborations involving joint PhD education.

Ämnet för föreliggande rapport är kopplingen mellan forskning och utbildning i policy och praktik vid KTH. Studien består av en litteraturgenomgång, enkätstudie, fallstudier vid två av KTH:s skolor samt en utblick mot TU Delft i Nederländerna. Teman som behandlats är ledarskap och styrning, finansiering, karriärvägar och högskolepedagogik. Resultaten visar att idén om en stark koppling mellan forskning och utbildning är högst levande på KTH. Intervjuerna visar också att det är en tanke som ständigt behöver såväl bevaras och bevakas, som en omistlig del av högre utbildning, som utmanas och diskuteras, i en föränderlig högskolesektor med allt högre krav. Kopplingen mellan forskning och utbildning behöver också beaktas i utvärderingar, finansiering och befordringskriterier, som uttryck för styrning och incitament. I enkätresultaten framgår också att en majoritet av biträdande lektorer och lektorer är missnöjda med fördelningen av sin arbetstid på olika arbetsuppgifter. Resultaten visar också att det anses avsevärt lättare att ha en stark koppling till forskning på avancerad nivå än på grundläggande nivå. Ett flertal goda exempel har dykt i utredningen när det gäller hur man praktiskt kan arbeta med forskningsanknytning i utbildningen: det bör på ett systematiskt sätt spridas över hela KTH.