Variety of attitudes towards the comprehensive university

Abstract

Higher education policy-making may attempt far-reaching reform of the post-secondary system and its inherited institutions. It may be oriented towards the replacement of distinctions between the academic and the non-academic as well as the transformation of the traditional university concept by means of a new conception of the organization of the post-secondary sector, the comprehensive university. Higher education policy-making may display not only great ambition but also policy extravagance. Maybe the Swedish 1977 higher education reform is the most ambitious attempt so far to implement the notions inherent in the comprehensive university. Maybe the element of policy extravagance was at times most conspicuous in the extended period of policy-making in Sweden culminating in the 1977 reform bill as it was even suggested that the universities of Uppsala (1477) and Lund (1668) were to be officially designated “Högskolan i Uppsala” and “Högskolan i Lund-Malmö” respectively. It may be interesting to find out the attitudes of those responsible for the day-to-day operations of the universities and colleges. This article presents the results of the first national survey of Swedish teachers and researchers in so far as they pertain to the evaluation of the 1977 reform.