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Olofsson, Anders
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Publications (10 of 74) Show all publications
Berggren, C. & Olofsson, A. (2021). A societal perspective on self-employment–Sweden as an example. Studies in Higher Education, 46(7), 1436-1448
Open this publication in new window or tab >>A societal perspective on self-employment–Sweden as an example
2021 (English)In: Studies in Higher Education, ISSN 0307-5079, E-ISSN 1470-174X, Vol. 46, no 7, p. 1436-1448Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

European Union policies emphasise the importance of entrepreneurship and self-employment to maintain economic growth, a solution influenced by the USA and research from schools of business. There are expectations of higher education graduates that they are innovative, will start businesses and will employ others. However, transferring a solution from one country to another may not be as simple as that. This study questions the recommendations made in EU policies which mainly focus on how to support individuals to become self-employed. Extensive data from the Swedish population registry of approximately 90,000 tertiary-educated people, all born in the mid-1970s, is used to analyse the extent to which this group became self-employed. Results show that societal and cultural differences need to be considered when creating such policies.

Keywords
entrepreneur, gender, Higher education, self-employment, tertiary educated
National Category
Educational Sciences
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:miun:diva-38183 (URN)10.1080/03075079.2019.1688285 (DOI)000496653800001 ()2-s2.0-85075144385 (Scopus ID)
Available from: 2020-01-08 Created: 2020-01-08 Last updated: 2021-06-18Bibliographically approved
From, J. & Olofsson, A. (2016). From University to Regionality? Knowledge Economy and Regional Development: The Case of Sweden. JEP: eJournal of Education Policy (spring), 1-13
Open this publication in new window or tab >>From University to Regionality? Knowledge Economy and Regional Development: The Case of Sweden
2016 (English)In: JEP: eJournal of Education Policy, ISSN 2158-9232, no spring, p. 1-13Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

New public management and knowledge economy have become watchwords in the governance of higher education. The university’s role has rapidly changed toward regional development. The aim of this article is critically to highlight the basic rationale of this reorganization and to examine what this can mean in a Swedish context. This rationale is described as the system of various forms of collaboration between industry, commerce, the universities and research institutes, and the political system. In Sweden, higher education is assumed to generate economic growth in different regional communities. How successful the university’s contribution can be is, however, an empirical question rather than an ideological one. A paradox lies in this reorganization—the more the university adapts to regional needs, the more difficult it is to generate knowledge in a global context. If the criteria for knowledge is regional development, then the nature of truth is replaced by something completely different.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Arizona: , 2016
Keywords
New public management, knowledge economy, regional development, economic growth, the function of higher education, redefinition of truth
National Category
Social Sciences
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:miun:diva-29311 (URN)
Funder
Swedish Research Council
Available from: 2016-11-18 Created: 2016-11-18 Last updated: 2017-11-29Bibliographically approved
Berggren, C. & Olofsson, A. (2015). Characteristics of Mobile Higher Education Students. In: ECER 2015, 7-11 September, Hungary: Education and Transition - Contributions from Educational Research, 2015: . Paper presented at ECER 2015, 7-11 September, Hungary.
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Characteristics of Mobile Higher Education Students
2015 (English)In: ECER 2015, 7-11 September, Hungary: Education and Transition - Contributions from Educational Research, 2015, 2015Conference paper, Oral presentation with published abstract (Refereed)
Abstract [en]

To enter Higher Education the student sometimes needs to move. What are the characteristics of those who move?

In the big picture, the direction of the mobility is typically from less populated regions to the urbanised regions (HSV, 2011), and mobility is more common among women than men particularly in the early 20s (SCB, 2011). One explanation for women’s greater likelihood for mobility is that they to a greater extent study at higher education. People with ample resources, such as private means and networks, have traditionally been mobile (Bourdieu & Passeron, 1990). In addition, socially privileged students have been ready to move also when higher education institutions have been within commuting distance from their home, thus to make the best educational choice to gain and reproduce their family capital (Kivinen, et al., 2001). A move to a more prestigious institution or to a more prestigious study programme is less of a hurdle for them, it is even more or less expected (Clayton, Crozier, & Reay, 2009). Among higher education students who are less mobile are young students who still live within the parental home and wish to do so. Less mobile are also the mature students who have a family of their own (Wikhall, 2001). Even though Sweden is considered a gender equal country, women still carry the main responsibility for the family (Holth, Jordansson, & Gonäs, 2012), which clearly restricts their mobility.

We are interested in a comprehensive understanding of the mobile versus the stationary students. In relation to the dichotomy “movers” or “stayers”, individuals can be grouped into different modalities, a “summation” of different distinguishing characteristics, such as gender, social class, age, and region of origin.

We are influenced by reproduction theory and intersectionality (Acker, 1990; Bourdieu & Passeron, 1990; McCall, 2005). Those who occupy advantaged positions strive to continue to do so, and mobility can be a mean to recreate or improve the family position.   

Keywords
Higher Education, Mobility
National Category
Pedagogy
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:miun:diva-26628 (URN)
Conference
ECER 2015, 7-11 September, Hungary
Projects
Högskoleutbildades mobilitet: köns- och klassperspektiv på val av högskola och val av etableringsort efter studier
Funder
Swedish Research Council
Available from: 2015-12-18 Created: 2015-12-18 Last updated: 2015-12-21Bibliographically approved
Olofsson, A. (2015). Lärares inställning till rektors ledning (2ed.). In: Höög, J., & Johansson, O. (Ed.), Struktur, kultur, ledarskap : förutsättningar för framgångsrika skolor: (pp. 99-113). Lund: Studentlitteratur
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Lärares inställning till rektors ledning
2015 (Swedish)In: Struktur, kultur, ledarskap : förutsättningar för framgångsrika skolor / [ed] Höög, J., & Johansson, O., Lund: Studentlitteratur , 2015, 2, p. 99-113Chapter in book (Other academic)
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Lund: Studentlitteratur, 2015 Edition: 2
National Category
Social Sciences
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:miun:diva-26629 (URN)978-91-44-10288-7 (ISBN)
Available from: 2015-12-18 Created: 2015-12-18 Last updated: 2015-12-22Bibliographically approved
Berggren, C. & Olofsson, A. (2015). Self-employment and field of education understood from current entrepreneurship research. International Journal of Gender and Entrepreneurship, 7(3), 291-302
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Self-employment and field of education understood from current entrepreneurship research
2015 (English)In: International Journal of Gender and Entrepreneurship, ISSN 1756-6266, E-ISSN 1756-6274, Vol. 7, no 3, p. 291-302Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to look at how results from a large-scale study can be understood in the context of contemporary gender and entrepreneurship research. Design/methodology/approach – Thisstudyisinspiredbyamixedmethodsmethodology.Togain a qualitative understanding of the general patterns in a large-scale study, research results in articles from the International Journal of Gender and Entrepreneurship (IJGE) were used. To make such a heterogeneousresearchfieldasappearsinIJGEcomparable,amodelwascreatedthathelpedustofocus our attention when reading the articles. The core of each article was identified. Findings – The categorisation of the articles in IJGE resulted in three perspectives: liberal, functional and structural. The liberal and functional perspectives improved our understanding only partially because these perspectives usually focused on a certain aspect in the society. The structural perspective more readily lent itself for interpretation of our large-scale results. Research limitations/implications – The dissonance between our perspective and the perspective of others has been a challenge; it has been a delicate task. Originality/value – This could be a way to improve communication of research not only within a perspective, but also between perspectives. It is important that scholarly journals provide the possibility to express different perspectives on, as in this example, gender and entrepreneurship. © Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

Keywords
Entrepreneurship, Gender, Higher education, Mixed methods, Self-employment
National Category
Educational Sciences Business Administration
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:miun:diva-25920 (URN)10.1108/IJGE-03-2013-0024 (DOI)000214087700004 ()2-s2.0-84940102027 (Scopus ID)
Note

Export Date: 23 September 2015

Available from: 2015-09-23 Created: 2015-09-23 Last updated: 2020-09-21Bibliographically approved
Olofsson, A., Hult, A. & Lindgren, J. (2015). The idea of a University in times of quality assurance: the voices of Swedish vice chancellors. In: ECER 2015, 7-11 September, Hungary: Education and Transition - Contributions from Educational Research, 2015: . Paper presented at ECER 2015, 7-11 September, Hungary.
Open this publication in new window or tab >>The idea of a University in times of quality assurance: the voices of Swedish vice chancellors
2015 (English)In: ECER 2015, 7-11 September, Hungary: Education and Transition - Contributions from Educational Research, 2015, 2015Conference paper (Refereed)
Abstract [en]

The classical debate on the idea of the university goes back to the 19th century, originating in the intellectual and humanistic visions of Cardinal John Henry Newman in England and Wilhelm Von Humboldt in Germany. The history of the modern university, the celebration of triumph of reason over dogma and the notion of academic freedom and self-governance, which is even older, was borne of the 12th century Bologna Charter. During the 20th century, this debate continued and somewhat different idealised models of the university were presented (Wyatt 1990). During the 1960–1970s, intellectuals such as Habermas and Parsons sought to protect principles of the Enlightenment from becoming rigidified in factories of mass-produced technical expertise (Habermas 1987; Parsons & Platt 1973). In the 1990s, similar discussions emerged as new public management and academic capitalism continued to make its entry while turning higher education into what some called the “McUniversity in the postmodern consumer society” (Ritzer 1996).

In the wake of more recent transformations of the higher education sector, scholars have returned to this debate (O’Byrne & Bond 2014; Rider, Hasselberg Waluszewski 2013). For example, it has been argued that the increasing external (and internal) monitoring, quality assurance and evaluation, together with the continued embracement of NPM, has managed to further erode intellectual ideals and push aside the free pursuit of knowledge. The need for external quality assurance has been questioned: Is not continuous self-evaluation intrinsic to the very discovery of knowledge—to the idea of a university as such? (Jarvis 2014)

Against this background, the aim of this paper is to investigate the current ideas of a university in Sweden. Overall, the development in higher education in Sweden appears to follow international trends (Segerholm et al. 2014). Swedish higher education has undergone several reforms from 1993 and onwards that have produced governing tensions which reflect moves of simultaneous deregulation/decentralization/self-governing, and re-regulation/centralization including problems of balancing control/accountability and support (Segerholm et al. 2012). In the words of Segerholm et al. (2014: 7), higher education has ‘moved from being an internally managed “ill-defined problem” (evaluated by professionals themselves who needed leeway to define their own practice) to a “well-defined problem” managed and controlled by external (and internal) “expertise” by way of using indicators and standards’. We know what national and local policies say about the role of higher education—the key words—innovation, quality, internationalization, development, competitiveness, etc.—are all familiar. However, the mainstream agenda for universities constructed and maintained in modalities of the knowledge economy have international, as well as national, opponents (Barnett 2011; Gustafsson 2014).

This paper then, more specifically, aims to investigate what responsible key actors have to say on this critical issue. Vice chancellors are such key actors in their capacity as representatives for their universities in the Association of Swedish Higher Education (SUHF). What kind of ideas, conceptions and visions do the vice chancellors express concerning the role of the university today?

The study is part of the project ‘Governing by Evaluation in Higher Education in Sweden’, which evaluates the recent reform of quality evaluations in higher education and examines the ways in which it may be understood as governing education. By way of interviewing rectors regarding their ideas of the university, we examine and make sense of these tensions in order to understand ideas, systems and practices within the transformed higher education sector with a particular focus on implications that are related to quality assurance and evaluation.

National Category
Pedagogy
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:miun:diva-26553 (URN)
Conference
ECER 2015, 7-11 September, Hungary
Available from: 2015-12-17 Created: 2015-12-16 Last updated: 2015-12-17Bibliographically approved
Olofsson, A. & Hult, A. (2015). What is quality in higher education?: Vice-chancellors’ notions in times of accountability in Sweden. In: Abstract Book, NERA 4-6 March 2015: Marketisation and Differentiation in Education, 2015: . Paper presented at The 43rd Annual Congress of the Nordic Educational Research Association, NERA 4-6 March 2015.
Open this publication in new window or tab >>What is quality in higher education?: Vice-chancellors’ notions in times of accountability in Sweden
2015 (English)In: Abstract Book, NERA 4-6 March 2015: Marketisation and Differentiation in Education, 2015, 2015Conference paper, Published paper (Refereed)
Abstract [en]

This paper is part of a research program that aims to explore and evaluate the Swedish quality evaluation system with respectto how it operates in governing higher education. Both internationally and in Sweden, quality has been the word of honor when discussing and evaluating higher education. However, what quality implies varies among different evaluation systems and purposes of evaluations (Dahler-Larsen 2008). Drawing on this, it is interesting to explore what the front representatives of universities and university colleges emphasize as quality in higher education. The aim of this paper is to map out and analyze all Swedish vice-chancellors’ notions on quality in higher education (HE). What different notions on quality in HE do they express? What are the means to accomplish this quality, according to the vice-chancellors? Evaluative activities are understood as closely linked to the governing of education (Ozga et al. 2011) and as part of education policy transfer through international organizations and networks like the OECD and the EU and ENQA (Grek et al. 2009; Dale & Robertson 2009). In-depth interviews with more than 90% of all vice-chancellors in Sweden have been performed and analyzed in order to highlight the main qualitative differences. Four categories of notions are identified, varying from quality being expressed by high international ranking to quality being a successful development of individual student talents. The paper will discuss the variations between and within these notions. Furthermore, the four notions will be analyzed in relation to old and new universities as well as universities and university colleges.

National Category
Pedagogy
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:miun:diva-26574 (URN)
Conference
The 43rd Annual Congress of the Nordic Educational Research Association, NERA 4-6 March 2015
Available from: 2015-12-17 Created: 2015-12-17 Last updated: 2015-12-17Bibliographically approved
Segerholm, C., Lindgren, J., Hult, A. & Olofsson, A. (2014). Changing evaluation frameworks - changing expectations?: The case of Swedish higher education.. In: : . Paper presented at European Conference for Educational Research ECER, Porto, 1-5 September 2014.
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Changing evaluation frameworks - changing expectations?: The case of Swedish higher education.
2014 (English)Conference paper, Oral presentation with published abstract (Refereed)
Abstract [en]

As a part of the 'audit society' (Power 1997), the idea of systematic evaluations is strongly promoted in contemporary education policy (Ozga et al. 2011). Higher education is not an exception and European policy like the Bologna declaration and the development of common quality indicators are just a few examples. Looking at the national arena, this paper aims at exploring the relation between evaluation systems in Swedish higher education and governing from 1993 and onwards. Theoretically we recognize the dynamic relationship underling both institutional reproduction and change (Mahoney & Thelen 2010). Evaluation systems may change gradually or more dramatically and these dynamics hold implications for governing and for how we can understand expectations of what is to count as, for instance, as 'good quality' Hopmann et al. 2007). Official policy texts are used and a qualitative content analysis (Bergström & Boréus 2005) is performed, guided by questions like: What is evaluated? Why? By whom? How? With what consequences? Preliminary results suggest that the governing potential in the evaluation systems in Swedish higher education partly relies on the shifts themselves. By constantly changing the systems, expectations are also changed and form one important part of the work of governing.

National Category
Social Sciences
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:miun:diva-23603 (URN)
Conference
European Conference for Educational Research ECER, Porto, 1-5 September 2014
Funder
Swedish Research Council
Available from: 2014-12-05 Created: 2014-12-05 Last updated: 2014-12-30Bibliographically approved
Berggren, C. & Olofsson, A. (2014). Gender Perspective on Student’s Choice of Higher Education Institution.. In: : . Paper presented at Paper presented at European Conference on Educational Research, 2-6 September, 2014.
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Gender Perspective on Student’s Choice of Higher Education Institution.
2014 (English)Conference paper, Oral presentation with published abstract (Refereed)
Abstract [en]

The focus is on the role of HE students’ mobility to university colleges, if mobility contributes to the replication of gender and class structures in Sweden.

Higher education has expanded by increasing the number of study places and by incorporating previous colleges, mainly located in provincial centres. The inclusion of such colleges within the ambit of an expanded higher education was meant to be a way of levelling out social class differences 

National Category
Pedagogy
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:miun:diva-23814 (URN)
Conference
Paper presented at European Conference on Educational Research, 2-6 September, 2014
Projects
Högskoleutbildades mobilitet: köns- och klassperspektiv på val av högskola och val av etableringsort efter studier
Funder
Swedish Research Council, 2012-5031
Available from: 2014-12-16 Created: 2014-12-16 Last updated: 2014-12-18Bibliographically approved
From, J. & Olofsson, A. (2014). Kunskapsekonomi och regional utveckling. In: von Friedrichs, Y., Gawell, M., & Wincent, J. (Ed.), Samhällsentreprenörskap – samverkande för lokal utveckling: (pp. 181-193). Östersund: Mittuniversitetet
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Kunskapsekonomi och regional utveckling
2014 (Swedish)In: Samhällsentreprenörskap – samverkande för lokal utveckling / [ed] von Friedrichs, Y., Gawell, M., & Wincent, J., Östersund: Mittuniversitetet , 2014, p. 181-193Chapter in book (Other academic)
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Östersund: Mittuniversitetet, 2014
Series
Social Science Reports from Mid Sweden University ; 2014:5
National Category
Social Sciences
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:miun:diva-23818 (URN)978-91-87557-33-0 (ISBN)
Projects
SESPA
Available from: 2014-12-16 Created: 2014-12-16 Last updated: 2014-12-18Bibliographically approved
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