Adaptive University Structures: An Analysis of Adaptation to Socioeconomic Environments of US and European Universities. Higher Education Policy Series 54.

This study examined the adaptation of institutions of higher education in the United States and Europe to changing socioeconomic factors and proposed a theory of adaptation in higher education which stresses the need for new forms of governance, management, and leadership structures. The study analyzed six university structures, each with a "distinctive" environment, over a four-year period using case study and grounded theory methodologies. The institutions were: (1) New York University, the largest private university in the world, which reinvented itself after severe financial problems in the 1970s; (2) the University of Michigan, a large public university challenged by ethnic diversity and racial tensions; (3) the University of California at Berkeley, confronted with a major financial crisis through the restructuring of the California legal and economic system; (4) Universitat St. Gallen (Switzerland), which has a history of adapting effectively to regional needs for focused training; (5) Universita Bocconi, a private university in Italy with strong entrepreneurial and adaptive structures; and (6) Wirtschaftsuniversitat Wien (Austria), which is facing a major organizational reform mandated by the government. Individual chapters address: the changing nature of the university environment, theories of organizational and higher education adaptation, design of the empirical study, the case studies, and a theory of adaptation in higher education. (Contains approximately 300 references.) (DB)