INNOVATION PROCESSES IN HIGHER-EDUCATION

The paper contains a brief description of the research we have undertaken on innovations and innovation processes in higher education [1]. Within the framework of a larger project (a study of educational planning for Swedish Higher Education [2]), we have made seven case studies of innovation processes and tried to relate them to an attempt towards a general theory of innovations. We have built on, and tried to exemplify, the field theory of the social psychologist, Kurt Lewin [3]. This means that we view change as being realised through a form of political process, determined by the strength of the different forces within a social system. We have tried to define the characteristics of higher education as a social system and the factors which determine the nature of the various forces towards a certain type of change. © 1979, Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. All rights reserved.