State Goals, Institutional Social Constructions, and Utah’s Postsecondary Education Governance Reform Efforts

Abstract

State-level postsecondary education governance has experienced a lull in successful reform efforts since the turn of the century. However, in 2020, the Utah System of Higher Education and Utah System of Technical Colleges were formally merged following a multi-year effort by state legislators and higher education officials. Framed by the theory of social construction and policy design, this study considers underlying institutional considerations and statewide goals that led to Utah’s governance merger and how these changes impacted the public higher education sectors in the state, offering insights for research examining higher education governance and reform efforts.