Introduction

Abstract

The purpose of this inquiry is to shape conceptual tools to understand the impact of new information and communication technologies (ICTs) on the organization of universities. Traditional research-based universities, the most typical representatives of the higher education system, find themselves challenged by the speed and the wide range of technical innovations, but also by a vast variety of implicit assumptions and explicit promises, which accompany the distribution of digital media. This makes the empirical terrain very confusing, both for theoretical, and for practical considerations. This study therefore aims at developing conceptual tools to better understand the challenges new ICTs create for higher education institutions, and how universities can react or proactively make use of them.