Making sense of institutional positioning in Finnish higher education
Vuori, Johanna (2015)
Vuori, Johanna
Taylor & Francis (Routledge)
2015
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2017102716358
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2017102716358
Tiivistelmä
This paper examines how institutional positioning has emerged in the meaning-making activities between Finnish higher education institutions and the Ministry of Education and Culture. The study is based on a qualitative analysis of the performance agreement documents of all higher education institutions filed with the Ministry for contract periods 2010-2012 and 2013-2016. The results show that in the first cycle, higher education institutions used profiling vocabulary in vastly different ways, and their lists of priority areas were quite wide ranging. By the second cycle, profiling statements had become more specific and structurally more alike, but the lists of priority areas continued to have a wide scope. As a response, the Ministry has consistently demanded and rewarded more focused profiling efforts and used the concepts of profiling to support other steering measures.