Tracing values in party politics on higher education

Abstract

This thesis investigates the prominence of the values equity and quality in Norwegian party politics on higher education. This topic is interesting as it addresses how core values develop among key stakeholders for higher education. The methods used are document analysis of the party programmes of the Labour party (Arbeiderpartiet), the Conservative party (Høyre) and the Socialist Left party (Sosialistisk Venstreparti/SV) for the election periods 2001–2005, 2005–2009, 2009–2013 and 2013–2017 and interviews with representatives on higher education from the three parties. Historical and normative institutional theories are applied in order to analyse the how prominence of the values develop within and between the parties. The values equity and quality are coupled to functions of higher education and the co-existence and possible contradiction between the values is discussed. The findings show divergence on equity and convergence on quality between the three parties in the time period. The observed convergence on quality is partly due to the influence of Høyre on Arbeiderpartiet and SV with respect to this value. The discussion shows that historical institutionalism can explain the divergence in equity, but normative institutionalism can explain changes in both values. Yet, both analytical frameworks have limitations when they are applied on the findings in this investigation. The findings show that quality entails elements of equity. Furthermore, there is no dominant contradiction between equity and quality, although the co-existence between the two values is not free of conflict.