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Merger of Two Universities of Applied Sciences

  • Chapter
Mergers in Higher Education

Part of the book series: Higher Education Dynamics ((HEDY,volume 46))

Abstract

This chapter reports the case of the merger between two universities of applied sciences in Finland. The official merger process started in the beginning of the year 2008 and eventually merged on 1st January 2010. It is expected that the merger will enhance both the internationalization capacity and market attractiveness. Following an analytical framework of merger process, we will discuss how the decision of the merger was made and how the merger was implemented along three distinct stages, namely: planning: integration; and outcomes. In the end, it concludes that the merger was relatively successful and provide implications of the case for policy makers and institutional managers when planning and operating mergers.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Finland has binary higher education system, including research universities and vocationally- and professionally-oriented higher education institutions. The official name of the latter is called ammattikorkeakoulu. Although Finnish institutions translate their names in English as Universities of Applied Sciences, in the English versions of Finnish governmental documents (e.g. the Polytechnics Act and the Finnish Ministry of Education and Culture’s websites), this type of institutions are called polytechnics. Nevertheless, the translation university of applied sciences is nowadays widely used in Austria, Finland, Germany and Netherlands, albeit the term has been a conversation piece (de Lourdes Machado et al. 2008).

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Tampere University of Applied Sciences, Tampere, Finland

    Marja Sutela

  2. Higher Education Group, School of Management, University of Tampere, Tampere, Finland

    Yuzhuo Cai

  3. Institute of International and Comparative Education, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China

    Yuzhuo Cai

Authors
  1. Marja Sutela
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  2. Yuzhuo Cai
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Marja Sutela .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Political Science and Management, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Agder, Kristiansand, Norway

    Rómulo Pinheiro

  2. Department of Learning, School of Education and Communication in Engineering Science, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden

    Lars Geschwind

  3. Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Lapland, Rovaniemi, Finland

    Timo Aarrevaara

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© 2016 Springer International Publishing Switzerland

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Sutela, M., Cai, Y. (2016). Merger of Two Universities of Applied Sciences. In: Pinheiro, R., Geschwind, L., Aarrevaara, T. (eds) Mergers in Higher Education. Higher Education Dynamics, vol 46. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-21918-9_10

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-21918-9_10

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-21917-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-21918-9

  • eBook Packages: EducationEducation (R0)

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