Prospects for the 1990s: Necessary Renewal or Alarming Change in the Danish Higher Education System?

Abstract

In Denmark, sweeping educational reforms are something of a rarity. However, at the close of the 1980s, the groundwork for considerable change has been plotted out. This is not to say that there has been standstill in recent years. On the contrary, institutions of higher education have experienced turbulence and confusion relating to changes there. Indeed, it could be argued that by far the most stable element of the 1980s has been the Minister of Education.The incumbent, Bertel Haarder, has held the post since 1982, which by Danish standards is an unusually long term of office. Despite many cabinet reshuffles during this period, the incumbent Prime Minister of the Conservative-Liberal Democratic coalition government has chosen to retain his Liberal Democratic Minister of Education [1]. The Minister is nothing if not a zealous spokesman for educational concerns, with a considerable series of publications and articles to his credit. Minister Haarder is one of the government's most active participants in political debate, consistently loyal to his party's policies. His ideas are many and varied, but tend to suggest a certain system or political logic which is, however, somewhat difficult to characterise, given the relatively short historical perspective of only eight years. Although the extent of current educational reform does not lend itself readily to particularisation, we have chosen to concentrate upon the more essential tendencies in further and higher education as they relate to rather narrowly defined areas, which, despite reforms and innovative measures, continue to be well known and traditional. The slogans that have dominated the debate on educational policy at the conclusion of the 1980s have been the following: strategic research and educational planning renewal and readjustment income-generating activity