SUBSTANTIVE GROWTH AND INNOVATIVE ORGANIZATION - NEW CATEGORIES FOR HIGHER-EDUCATION RESEARCH

The existing international literature on higher education centers on t he transition from elite to mass higher education, the changing relati onship between governments and universities, and the differentiation o f the institutional fabric of national systems. These important instit utionalized concerns lead to an unbalanced research agenda if other ba sic features are not pursued. Two additional fundamental features need expanded attention: substantive academic growth, with its roots in th e research imperative and the dynamics of disciplines; and innovative university organization, a sharply growing concern among practitioners as universities seek greater capacity to change. Proliferating at a r apid rate, modern academic knowledge changes fields of study from with in, alters universities from the bottom-up, and increases the benefits and costs of decisions on the inclusion and exclusion of various spec ialties. The long-term trend from simple to complex knowledge, arguabl y more important than the trend from elite to mass higher education, f orces universities to position themselves between knowledge expansion and student expansion, with emphasis increasingly placed on the knowle dge dimension. Innovative universities explore new ways of organizing knowledge and of more effectively exploiting the fields in which they are already engaged. Greater awareness of new means of knowledge organ ization will help universities make wiser choices in the twenty-first century.