Bjørn Stensaker
Biographic Data
| ID | 1499819 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Bjørn Stensaker |
| GIVEN NAMES | Bjørn |
| FAMILY NAME | Stensaker |
| SIGNATURE | STENSAKER B |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Oslo |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-2109-4902 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 44 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 89 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 44 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1998 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
Investigating the Dynamics of European University Alliances as Multi‐Level Governance Spaces
The European universities initiative (EUI) has been presented by some as a disruptive policy initiative within the Europe of Knowledge given its speed, scale and scope of changes. In this article, a multi‐level governance (MLG) perspective is used to investigate the most important similarities and differences regarding the national policy responses to the EUI in Germany and Norway. The applied MLG perspective focuses on three dimensions: center‐p…
Extended collegiality? The role of students in external quality assurance panels in Europe
Student representation in external quality assurance is a mandatory requirement in European higher education systems and the involvement of students in such processes is seen as important for the legitimacy of evaluations, accreditations and audits. However, there is limited knowledge about the role students play in external quality assurance panels and how they perceive their involvement. This study seeks to address this gap. It is based on a su…
The Roles of Policy-Oriented University Alliances
Family, enterprise, academic team? The influence of Shi-men culture on the academic aspirations of postgraduates in Chinese research universities
In China, Shi-men serves as a crucial learning community for postgraduate academic development. This study investigates the influence of Shi-men culture on postgraduates’ academic aspirations. Shi-men culture encompasses explicit and implicit norms, values, and interactional patterns among its members, observed through supervisors’ and peers’ roles, interpersonal dynamics, and overall atmosphere. Through interviews with 24 postgraduates from 17 r…
How is student-centred learning translated within the European Higher Education Area
One of the key aims of the Bologna Process has been to stimulate the convergence of European higher education systems through agreed-upon standards and the comparability of key characteristics and dimensions. Since 2015, student-centred learning (SCL) has become more prominently launched as a key feature of the Bologna Process and as a concept aimed at further enhancing convergence between systems and institutions in Europe. However, as the conce…
Global, Nordic, or institutional visions? An investigation into how Nordic universities are adapting to the SDGs
After their launch by the UN in 2015, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have been seen as landmarks for global survival. Higher education has been given a key role in the implementation of the SDGs, and the current article investigates how a sample of Nordic higher education institutions have been adapting to the SDGs. Based on the assumption that some SDGs are closely linked to traditional Nordic values such as inclusion and equality, one…
University managers or institutional leaders? An exploration of top-level leadership in Chinese universities
In China, higher education institutions (HEIs) have a governance arrangement in which the university president and the party secretary occupy key roles. However, their legal roles as institutional leaders are vaguely specified in existing legal frameworks. Based on a four-dimensional theoretical model, this paper (i) clarifies the leadership roles in the dual governance structure, (ii) explores how HEI leaders (i.e. presidents and party secretari…
Balancing control and legitimacy in higher education policy implementation
A key policy challenge in establishing new universities is the potential risk of lower academic standards and mission drift, which can affect policy effectiveness and outcomes. While regulation and funding tend to be preferred policy instruments for securing control of higher education expansion and achieving policy objectives, this article reports on a nation-wide reform in which various forms of legitimacy and control were actively used as meas…
Players or Pawns? University Response to the Introduction of Plan S
The European Plan S initiative intending to transform the field of academic publishing towards open access has been received with both enthusiasm and criticism. This article reflects on this case as an example of how policymaking in ‘the Europe of Knowledge’ – characterized by increasing complexity caused by problems of multi-level coordination, combined with multi-actor divergence of norms, ideas, and interests − affects and triggers university …
Strategic Bureaucracy
Over recent decades, one can identify two key narratives associated with changes in university organization and governance. The first narrative focuses on the administrative consequences of an off-loading state relinquishing direct control over some of universities’ internal operations while at the same time driving bureaucratization at the institutional level. The second narrative focuses on the emergence of an increasingly competitive and uncer…
The European university alliances—an examination of organizational potentials and perils
The European Union (EU) has repeatedly underlined the importance of higher education, research and innovation as drivers in the further development of Europe—economically, socially and culturally. One of the latest policy initiatives by the European Commission (EC) intended to promote this agenda is the European Universities Initiative (EUI) where alliances between universities across national borders are to identify new approaches for boosting E…
Bounded innovation or agency drift? Developments in European higher education quality assurance
As higher education quality assurance in many countries in Europe has become a mature activity, some agencies carrying out external quality assurance are developing beyond their core tasks and missions. The current study identifies new tasks taken up within quality assurance agencies and analyses the drivers behind such development. Based on an empirical investigation into six quality assurance agencies in Europe, the study finds that these agenc…
Research on internationalisation and globalisation in higher education—Reflections on historical paths, current perspectives and future possibilities
Internationalisation and globalisation are intertwined and complex phenomena that have attracted the interest of higher education scholars for several decades. This article offers some reflections on how research on internationalisation and globalisation has developed over the years and the perspectives that appear to have dominated these studies. A key argument is that while the field is, in many ways, booming—both in the numbers of publications…
Mergers and missions
In recent decades, many higher education systems around the world have been exposed to institutional mergers. While the rationale for mergers has often been related to issues of improved quality, effectiveness and/or efficiency at the institutional level, fewer studies have analysed how mergers may affect institutional diversity within the higher education landscape. Focusing on institutional missions, the current study analyses the strategic pla…
Student partnership
The concept of student partnership has attracted increased attention during the last decade, often due to an assumption that it can mitigate neo-liberal agendas and practices in teaching and learning. A review of definitions and understandings of student partnership models shows that most of the research conducted on this topic has been based on normative assumptions, with less focus on how partnership practices play out in different contexts. In…
Governance for excellence and diversity? The impact of central and regional affiliation for the strategic positioning of Chinese top universities
Through analysis of the strategic ambitions of China’s top universities, this article studies the relationship between governance structures at the system level and strategic institutional adaptations. In China, some top universities are governed directly by the national authorities while others have regional affiliations. By analyzing the strategic plans of a sample of universities in both categories the article examines how these differences in…
Global rankings at a local cost? The strategic pursuit of status and the third mission
This study examined how hierarchical positions within the global field of higher education influence the selection of strategic priorities by universities in different parts of the world. The study particularly focused on universities’ commitment to third missions as reflected in their strategic plans and compared to their global rankings. The findings demonstrate that top globally ranked institutions are generally less explicit about their commi…
Strengthening the strategic capacity of public universities
Governments in Europe have emphasized the development of more autonomous public universities over the last couple of decades. Often, the aim of these reform policies has been to stimulate to a more competitive and agile higher education sector, where increased formal autonomy is perceived as a key condition to strengthen the strategic capacity of universities. These reforms have resulted in considerable shifts in the internal governance models of…
Evidence-Informed Policy and Practice in the Field of Education
Evidence-informed policy and practice has been a trend as part of an effort to increase the use of research to improve education at all levels. In many countries, knowledge-brokering initiatives were established to stimulate links between research, policy, and practice. Drawing on a mapping of initiatives in seven countries, this article describes different organizational designs, and discusses potential dilemmas these might imply for the realiza…
Changing missions? How the strategic plans of research-intensive universities in Northern Europe and North America balance competing identities
This paper assesses the assumption that public research-intensive universities are conforming to external pressures and demands in similar ways. By analyzing the strategic plans of public research-intensive universities in Northern Europe and North America, we identify variations in how public and private dimensions of higher education are balanced. The study includes 19 North American and Northern European universities and finds that North Ameri…
Policy, Perceptions, and Practice
Stratified University Strategies
Globalizing forces have both transformed the higher education sector and made it increasingly homogenous. Growing similarities among universities have been attributed to isomorphic pressures to ensure and/or enhance legitimacy by imitating higher education institutions that are perceived as successful internationally, particularly universities that are highly ranked globally (Cantwell & Kauppinen, 2014; DiMaggio and Powell, 1983). In this study, …
Learning outcomes - a useful tool in quality assurance? Views from academic staff
While the establishment of quality assurance has been seen for decades as the most significant instrument to secure and enhance the quality of teaching and learning in higher education, the concept of developing more specific learning outcomes has in recent years attracted much interest, not least due to the creation of national qualification frameworks. In this article, we compare the perceived relevance of the traditional quality assurance appr…
Why is quality in higher education not achieved? The view of academics
Quality assurance is currently an established activity in Europe, driven either by national quality assurance agencies or by institutions themselves. However, whether quality assurance is perceived as actually being capable of promoting quality is still a question open to discussion. Based on three different views on quality derived from the literature – quality as culture, as compliance and as consistency – the current article sheds light on thi…
Shaping Perceptions of a Policy Instrument
Stratified University Strategies
Globalizing forces have both transformed the higher education sector and made it increasingly homogenous. Growing similarities among universities have been attributed to isomorphic pressures to ensure and/or enhance legitimacy by imitating higher education institutions that are perceived as successful internationally, particularly universities that are highly ranked globally (Cantwell & Kauppinen, 2014; DiMaggio and Powell, 1983). In this study, …
Governmental policy, organisational ideals and institutional adaptation in Norwegian higher education
In recent decades higher education institutions have been encouraged but also pressured to adapt to new demands in the environment. The need for higher education to become more innovative and dynamic has not least been communicated through politics and various reform initiatives. By analysing how six Norwegian higher education institutions have adapted to political pressure to improve the quality of teaching and learning in the period between 199…
The dynamics of European regulatory regimes in higher education — Challenged prerogatives and evolutionary change
European higher education has witnessed a substantial growth in regulatory arrangements in external quality assurance (EQA) during the last couple of decades. This current article describes the central characteristics and trajectories of this expansion, and discusses drivers of this development drawing on an institutional perspective. Empirically, three distinct, although overlapping, stages in the building up of a regulatory regime are identifie…
Organizational Studies in Higher Education
Strategic Bureaucracy
Over recent decades, one can identify two key narratives associated with changes in university organization and governance. The first narrative focuses on the administrative consequences of an off-loading state relinquishing direct control over some of universities’ internal operations while at the same time driving bureaucratization at the institutional level. The second narrative focuses on the emergence of an increasingly competitive and uncer…
A conceptualisation of available trust-building mechanisms for international quality assurance of higher education
While external quality assurance in higher education was originally developed to cater for various domestic needs, recent decades have seen various attempts in the use of quality assurance also as a mechanism for creating more trust in cross-national higher education activities. In this article, a conceptual framework for analysing available trust-building mechanisms in higher education is presented, and it is discussed how the different mechanis…
Doomed to be Entrepreneurial
Reforming higher education in the Netherlands and Norway
In the literature on system level governance of higher education, deregulation and the stepping back of government are regarded as effective measures for strengthening institutional autonomy. Based on an analysis of reforms in higher education in the Netherlands and Norway from the mid-1980s onwards, this article discusses how institutional autonomy is conditioned by reform implementation and the regulatory frameworks intended to enhance autonomy…
Accreditation of higher education in Europe – moving towards the US model
Accreditation is fast becoming the dominant method of evaluation used in the European Higher Education Area. This paper traces the political process supporting the introduction of this method in Europe and identifies different theoretical understandings and practices which shed light on how we can interpret the spread and role of accreditation in Europe, before discussing current trends in European and US accreditation, which could pave the way f…
Old Wine in New Bottles? A Comparison of Public and Private Accreditation Schemes in Higher Education
Student partnership
The concept of student partnership has attracted increased attention during the last decade, often due to an assumption that it can mitigate neo-liberal agendas and practices in teaching and learning. A review of definitions and understandings of student partnership models shows that most of the research conducted on this topic has been based on normative assumptions, with less focus on how partnership practices play out in different contexts. In…
Policy, Perceptions, and Practice
Shaping Perceptions of a Policy Instrument
Designed Diffusion? The Impact of an EU Instrument for Public Management Reform in the Western Balkans
In pursuit of the European Union’s (EU’s) agenda to promote public sector reform in countries beyond the member states, the EU has relied on softer instruments to induce domestic reforms through technical and financial support. The impact and durability of such measures are contested and the research findings are mixed. This article examines the Tempus program, a core neighborhood policy instrument the EU has used to promote public management ref…
Bologna — Realising Old or New Ideals of Quality
Internationalisation of higher education
The article discusses the impact of the growing emphasis on internationalisation on higher education institutions. Based on case studies of 12 Scandinavian universities and colleges, it is shown how issues related to internationalisation trigger processes of trying to enhance the institutional capacity for strategic decision‐making and institutional integration through processes of formalisation, centralisation and professionalisation. Based on t…
National quality assessment systems in the Nordic countries
Strengthening the strategic capacity of public universities
Governments in Europe have emphasized the development of more autonomous public universities over the last couple of decades. Often, the aim of these reform policies has been to stimulate to a more competitive and agile higher education sector, where increased formal autonomy is perceived as a key condition to strengthen the strategic capacity of universities. These reforms have resulted in considerable shifts in the internal governance models of…
Culture and Fashion in Reform Implementation
(1998). Culture and Fashion in Reform Implementation: perceptions and adaptation of management reforms in higher education. Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management: Vol. 20, No. 2, pp. 129-138
Global rankings at a local cost? The strategic pursuit of status and the third mission
This study examined how hierarchical positions within the global field of higher education influence the selection of strategic priorities by universities in different parts of the world. The study particularly focused on universities’ commitment to third missions as reflected in their strategic plans and compared to their global rankings. The findings demonstrate that top globally ranked institutions are generally less explicit about their commi…
Learning outcomes - a useful tool in quality assurance? Views from academic staff
While the establishment of quality assurance has been seen for decades as the most significant instrument to secure and enhance the quality of teaching and learning in higher education, the concept of developing more specific learning outcomes has in recent years attracted much interest, not least due to the creation of national qualification frameworks. In this article, we compare the perceived relevance of the traditional quality assurance appr…
From quality assurance to quality practices
One of the main beliefs in quality assurance is that this activity – indirectly – will stimulate change in the work practices associated with teaching and learning in higher education. However, few studies have provided empirical evidence of the existence of such a link. Instead, quality assurance has created an unfortunate divide between formal rules and routines, and the daily practices in academia associated with teaching and learning. This ar…
National quality assessment systems in the Nordic countries
Culture and Fashion in Reform Implementation
(1998). Culture and Fashion in Reform Implementation: perceptions and adaptation of management reforms in higher education. Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management: Vol. 20, No. 2, pp. 129-138
National quality assessment systems in the Nordic countries
National quality assessment systems in the Nordic countries
Accreditation, standards and diversity
The development of various national and supra‐national accreditation systems is currently being discussed as a possible response to an increasingly internationalized and deregulated higher education sector. However, the establishment of such procedures may have unintended consequences, not least with respect to limiting the diversity of higher education. By studying a number of accreditation reports in the field of business administration (the EQ…
Old Wine in New Bottles? A Comparison of Public and Private Accreditation Schemes in Higher Education
Governmental policy, organisational ideals and institutional adaptation in Norwegian higher education
In recent decades higher education institutions have been encouraged but also pressured to adapt to new demands in the environment. The need for higher education to become more innovative and dynamic has not least been communicated through politics and various reform initiatives. By analysing how six Norwegian higher education institutions have adapted to political pressure to improve the quality of teaching and learning in the period between 199…
Internationalisation of higher education
The article discusses the impact of the growing emphasis on internationalisation on higher education institutions. Based on case studies of 12 Scandinavian universities and colleges, it is shown how issues related to internationalisation trigger processes of trying to enhance the institutional capacity for strategic decision‐making and institutional integration through processes of formalisation, centralisation and professionalisation. Based on t…
Bologna — Realising Old or New Ideals of Quality
Conclusion
An in‐depth study on the impact of external quality assurance
After more than two decades of external quality assurance, there is an increasing interest in questions concerning the impact and effects of this activity. Following an external evaluation of NOKUT – the Norwegian quality assurance agency, this article studies the impact of external quality assurance in detail by analysing quantitative and qualitative feedback from those exposed to evaluations conducted by this agency. The study provides informat…
Accreditation of higher education in Europe – moving towards the US model
Accreditation is fast becoming the dominant method of evaluation used in the European Higher Education Area. This paper traces the political process supporting the introduction of this method in Europe and identifies different theoretical understandings and practices which shed light on how we can interpret the spread and role of accreditation in Europe, before discussing current trends in European and US accreditation, which could pave the way f…
Reforming higher education in the Netherlands and Norway
In the literature on system level governance of higher education, deregulation and the stepping back of government are regarded as effective measures for strengthening institutional autonomy. Based on an analysis of reforms in higher education in the Netherlands and Norway from the mid-1980s onwards, this article discusses how institutional autonomy is conditioned by reform implementation and the regulatory frameworks intended to enhance autonomy…
Organizational Studies in Higher Education
The Evaluative State, Institutional Autonomy and Re-Engineering Higher Education in Europe
Doomed to be Entrepreneurial
The dynamics of European regulatory regimes in higher education — Challenged prerogatives and evolutionary change
European higher education has witnessed a substantial growth in regulatory arrangements in external quality assurance (EQA) during the last couple of decades. This current article describes the central characteristics and trajectories of this expansion, and discusses drivers of this development drawing on an institutional perspective. Empirically, three distinct, although overlapping, stages in the building up of a regulatory regime are identifie…
From quality assurance to quality practices
One of the main beliefs in quality assurance is that this activity – indirectly – will stimulate change in the work practices associated with teaching and learning in higher education. However, few studies have provided empirical evidence of the existence of such a link. Instead, quality assurance has created an unfortunate divide between formal rules and routines, and the daily practices in academia associated with teaching and learning. This ar…
Designed Diffusion? The Impact of an EU Instrument for Public Management Reform in the Western Balkans
In pursuit of the European Union’s (EU’s) agenda to promote public sector reform in countries beyond the member states, the EU has relied on softer instruments to induce domestic reforms through technical and financial support. The impact and durability of such measures are contested and the research findings are mixed. This article examines the Tempus program, a core neighborhood policy instrument the EU has used to promote public management ref…
A conceptualisation of available trust-building mechanisms for international quality assurance of higher education
While external quality assurance in higher education was originally developed to cater for various domestic needs, recent decades have seen various attempts in the use of quality assurance also as a mechanism for creating more trust in cross-national higher education activities. In this article, a conceptual framework for analysing available trust-building mechanisms in higher education is presented, and it is discussed how the different mechanis…
Why is quality in higher education not achieved? The view of academics
Quality assurance is currently an established activity in Europe, driven either by national quality assurance agencies or by institutions themselves. However, whether quality assurance is perceived as actually being capable of promoting quality is still a question open to discussion. Based on three different views on quality derived from the literature – quality as culture, as compliance and as consistency – the current article sheds light on thi…
Shaping Perceptions of a Policy Instrument
Changing missions? How the strategic plans of research-intensive universities in Northern Europe and North America balance competing identities
This paper assesses the assumption that public research-intensive universities are conforming to external pressures and demands in similar ways. By analyzing the strategic plans of public research-intensive universities in Northern Europe and North America, we identify variations in how public and private dimensions of higher education are balanced. The study includes 19 North American and Northern European universities and finds that North Ameri…
Policy, Perceptions, and Practice
Stratified University Strategies
Globalizing forces have both transformed the higher education sector and made it increasingly homogenous. Growing similarities among universities have been attributed to isomorphic pressures to ensure and/or enhance legitimacy by imitating higher education institutions that are perceived as successful internationally, particularly universities that are highly ranked globally (Cantwell & Kauppinen, 2014; DiMaggio and Powell, 1983). In this study, …
Learning outcomes - a useful tool in quality assurance? Views from academic staff
While the establishment of quality assurance has been seen for decades as the most significant instrument to secure and enhance the quality of teaching and learning in higher education, the concept of developing more specific learning outcomes has in recent years attracted much interest, not least due to the creation of national qualification frameworks. In this article, we compare the perceived relevance of the traditional quality assurance appr…
Political science (40 works) · Higher education (37 works) · Higher Education Governance and Development (37 works) · Sociology (23 works) · Public relations (22 works) · Economics (20 works) · Public Administration (20 works) · Business (18 works) · Law (15 works) · Public Administration (13 works)