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Academic capitalism is currently a widely studied topic amongst higher education scholars, especially in the United States. This paper demonstrates that the theory of academic capitalism also provides a fruitful perspective for analysing the restructuring of Finnish higher education since the 1990s, although with reservations. It will be argued that many reforms in Finnish universities since the 1990s, and especially in the early 2000s, have integrated Finnish universities more tightly with the new knowledge-based economy. As some recent empirical studies indicate, activities and practices related to academic capitalism remain, however, unevenly distributed among different disciplines, and workers in Finnish universities tend to experience increasingly contradictory demands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Universities in Europe face a variety of reform initiatives, and university reform can be seen as a wicked problem that should be resolved through collaborative efforts. In Finland, there has been considerable resistance to proposed reforms, with university personnel complaining that they have not been heard. Students, on the other hand, seem reluctant to participate in the debate. The situation does not lend itself to the collaborative resolution of wicked problems. Organizational changes are liable to failure, if wicked problems are not addressed effectively. This article presents a deliberative jury method in a university setting as a participative way to solve wicked problems and to pave the way for change. The method is tested through two cases in a Finnish university. These cases suggest that students and staff working together can devise and explore more comprehensive solutions to wicked problems, overcome the participation dilemma and generate change in their organization. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]