Game-like regulation of universities: Will the new regulatory framework for higher education in Sweden work?
✍ Scribed by Lars Niklasson
- Publisher
- Springer
- Year
- 1996
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 974 KB
- Volume
- 32
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0018-1560
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
A major reform of higher education in Sweden took place in 1993, making a radical change from central planning by parliament to deregulation, privatisation and performancerelated funding. To analyse the new kind of interaction between government and universities, a model based on game theory can be used, where government and universities are seen as actors in an iterated Prisoners' Dilemma.
The analysis is based on a model of "responsive regulation", in which a number of recommendations are made on how cooperation can be achieved in a regulatory relationship. This model is then compared to the new formal regulatory framework in Sweden, which can be described in six points. Secondly I compare the model to the available evidence of what has happened in "real life" since the reform was enacted.
This approach adds to the literature on implementation, in which studies usually focus on specific orders from the top, whereas this is about shifting initiative from the central to the local level. As such, it is a starting point in an analysis of how "freedom" is implemented; "will universities take advantage of their greater independence and, if so, how will they do it?". "What are the necessary prerequisites for this to take place?".