The formation of higher education policy is a political process, and a change in government can have a substantial effect on higher education policy, resulting in dramatic system reform. Transforming Universities shows how such changes can affect institutional conditions and academic working and values, using the highly politicized Swedish system as a case study.

The book examines the implications of reforms for a higher education system on three levels - the state, the institution and the individual. The authors develop the links between policy formation at state level, type of institutional autonomy and conditions for learning at individual level, and argue that higher education policy makers need to focus on improving knowledge formation.