Do mergers in higher education influence student applications

Bibliographic Data

ID14690108
AuthorsAndreas Fidjeland (0009-0005-7769-6266, Nordic Institute for Studies of Innovation, Research, and Education, Oslo, Norway), Tora Knutsen (0000-0002-6204-4813, Nordic Institute for Studies of Innovation, Research, and Education, Oslo, Norway), Vegard Wiborg (0000-0001-5930-4461, Nordic Institute for Studies of Innovation, Research, and Education, Oslo, Norway, corresponding author)
Year2025
Pages1-21
Publication date2025-10-06
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueStudies in Higher Education (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0307-5079 • E-ISSN: 1470-174X
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/03075079.2025.2561013
OpenAlexW4414865197
LanguageEN
References cited40

Mergers and consolidations among higher education institutions (HEIs) have become increasingly common in recent decades. In this paper, we use a Norwegian reform to examine whether mergers between HEIs affect their competitiveness in attracting prospective students. The reform reduced the number of public HEIs from 32 to 21, with many colleges gaining university status through mergers. We use a synthetic control approach to assess the impact of these mergers on student applications. We find no evidence that merged institutions attracted more applicants; if anything, applications per intake place declined slightly. These results suggest that neither expanding institutional size nor attaining university status enhanced an institution's ability to attract prospective students

Further education · Higher education · Qualitative research · Student engagement · Trend analysis · Higher Education Governance and Development · Higher Education Research Studies

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