Institutional elements of success in Tampere3 merger process

Tampere is a city in Finland with three universities, which are thriving for establishing a unique for Finnish higher education system combined university institution. A merger of two different research universities and a university of applied sciences is a compelling topic to inquire for its diverse institutional fabric, intertwined of different organizational cultures, expectations, regulations, and legal statuses. This paper adopts an interesting research perspective of observing the merger in midst of its preparation process. The focus of the research is an inter-organizational, preparatory working group under the organizational umbrella of the merger organization, co-operating in the field of civil engineering discipline between Tampere University of Technology (TUT) and Tampere University of Applied Sciences (TAMK). The data was gathered through interviews with the representatives, the academic staff, students and the merger administration, closely involved in the activities of the focus working group. Institutional theory is employed to analyse the data. Our findings, as institutional elements of the success of this co-operation, are presented and discussed. Key words: higher education, mergers, case study, institutional theory.