Higher education mergers in Europe: a comparative study of the post-merger phase

The aim of this study is to compare the results of successful mergers in terms of ranking performance of the so called 'world-class' universities in a European Union context, with a view to identifying the challenges these universities face in their post-merger situation and strategies. After a content analysis, four themes emerged: crucial factors at the pre-merger phase to ensure a successful merger, the best actions to be performed at the merger phase to ensure a successful merger, the main challenges faced at the post-merger phase, and post-merger strategies in the last phase. Then, we analysed the institutional post-merger strategies to find differences between different mergers. Our research shows that in all cases there is a mix of various local and national/international factors that need to be analysed in the post-merger phase before a merger can be deemed to be 'successful' overall, and before the various dimensions of the global impact of the merger can be assessed.