Universities are intimately intertwined with their environments. They are subjects of a wide variety of expectations from external parties, and rely on meeting these expectations to maintain funding, trust and access to valuable infrastructure and information. Research has shown that universities are highly reactive to these circumstances, forming patterns of action termed – for instance – academic capitalism or active universities. Such actions can be aimed at adapting to external realities, or they may be aimed at attempting to influence the way these realities are developed and implemented. In working towards either of these goals, universities have adapted to their increasingly complex environment by expanding top management teams, establishing new groups of professional support staff and generating new hybrid functions straddling the divide between academic, administrative and managerial roles. All of these structures represent new avenues of strategic positioning and internal power distribution that depend on extensive communication and intricate decision-making processes. So what happens to these structures when time is a limited commodity and environmental pressures experience a sudden upheaval. Which interests take priority?

This study compares the somewhat slow-moving and predictable processes behind strategy formulation and similar positioning activities at Swedish higher education institutions with the very fast-paced and unpredictable processes behind their responses to government initiatives regarding the covid-19 pandemic of 2020 – 2021. Both cases provide clear examples of strategic positioning with far-reaching implications for the continued development of institutional profiles for each respective university, but the widely different circumstances surrounding each group of activities necessitate different internal processes and priorities. Through interviews with key staff at three different Swedish universities, this study shows how internal decision-making structures as well as priorities are adapted in relation to the practical circumstances of the positioning process.