University mergers: New strategies for higher education institutions

Abstract

The purpose of this chapter is to examine university mergers, their motives, problems, and challenges that emerge during process implementation, as well as their effects. Research results show that rarely there is one motive for merging institutions of higher education, but there are, most often, multiple motives. Furthermore, results of the analysis indicate that the efficiency of university mergers is different and that more successful mergers among institutions of different sizes, as well as among complementary institutions. Additionally, research results demonstrate that the most important challenge related to the implementation of university mergers refers to the conservatism of traditional academic cultures and the existence of strong employee resistance toward change. Finally, results of this study show that the key factors of the success of university mergers are successful management of human resources, leadership quality, communication on important aspects of changes, achieving cultural compliance of integrated institutions.