Leadership Foundation

Mergers in Higher Education

Helen Goreham, Research Manager, Leadership Foundation
Published January 2011

Mergers occur when two or more organisations (or institutions) combine - either to create one new organisation, or retaining the identity of one of the original organisations. Mergers continue to be relatively common in the corporate sector. In higher/further education (H/FE) in the UK there have been two key periods of intense merger activity in recent years - the late 1980s to early 1990s and then the late 1990s to early 2000s. The latest indication is that many in the UK expect a new phase of mergers to take place either following the recession or in response to other political pressures.

Most of the available UK H/FE literature on mergers arises from the two phases noted above. Australia and South Africa have also experienced significant 'waves' of mergers and there is relevant literature from these countries that examines the challenges and benefits. In the business and management fields, Professor Huw Morris (Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Academic) and Dean of the College of Arts and Social Science, University of Salford; Recent Chair of the Association of Business Schools) notes that "the early work on mergers and acquisitions was essentially functionalist and normative in focus and flavour. This has been replaced in recent times by analyses which focus on many more detailed quantitative analyses in the field of finance, and discourse based analyses in strategy and organisational studies which focus on the way people write and talk about mergers and comment on their success. This shift in focus means that in fact, some of the earlier studies and books may be more accessible to practising managers today than some of the more recent studies."

In terms of the benefits of mergers in higher education and when they are most likely to be successful, despite a wealth of evidence from higher education and beyond, there does not seem to be a definitive answer. There are certainly some factors which make some mergers more likely to be successful than others (the references below discuss these in more detail) and there are examples of successful mergers. However, the main lessons to come out of the literature seem to be that mergers are extremely expensive in terms of money and resources (and as such undertaking a merger for financial reasons alone is very high-risk); that there are unlikely to be any significant benefits in the short-term (except non-closure of an institution), that long term benefits take many more years than expected to develop, that there can never be too much planning in preparation for a merger and finally, that the organisational, human and cultural elements of the 'new' institution need to be made a priority, particularly after the merger has occurred.

The resources below represent a selection of some of the material available from journals, government sources and institutions - in most cases summaries of abstracts are presented along with a link of how to access the full report. They are by no means exhaustive but will hopefully offer some useful insights.

• Higher/Further Education Mergers - literature
• Merger Evaluation Reports
• Higher Education Case Studies
• Legislation/Guidance
• News Articles
• Non HE Literature on Mergers

For more information about the Knowledge Resouces contact:

Eleni Stamou, Research Manager