This document, adapted to readers who are not familiar with institutional details in Swedish higher education, outlines planning and management at regional and central levels. Emphasis is placed on qualitative aspects of planning and on identification of obstacles and possibilities of change and innovation. A central problem for the study is to…

Innovation processes in the Swedish Higher Education System are described and related to a general theory of innovation. Using the theories of Kurt Lewin, characteristics of higher education as a social system and factors which determine the nature of the forces towards a certain type of change are defined. (JMF)