Knowledge Traditions in Higher Education

The 1975 Reform of Higher Education

The reform of higher education resolved on by the Riksdag (the Swedish Parliament) in 1975 and implemented from July 1, 1977, was preceded by long preparations. During the 1960s — as before and after that decade, though with different emphases — quantitative problems relating to the labour market had carried a lot of weight in the planning of higher education. Even when the decision to reform higher education is regarded as part of the democratization of Swedish education, the main focus of attention has been on such outward planning questions as numbers of students and localization. Insofar as qualitative issues have been considered, the approach to them has often been one-dimensional, the implication being that there was one type of knowledge which was best, and that this knowledge should be transmitted to everybody or to as many people as possible. The technological approach to education fitted in nicely with this basic view. It was assumed that exact educational objectives could be stated — they expressed the best knowledge already referred to — and that the achievement of those objectives would then be a limited executive task of a technical and administrative nature.