University Reorganisations in Biology

To improve their scientific accomplishments, universities have extensively redesigned the organisation of their research in the last fifty years. Nowhere is this more evident than in life sciences. Between 1960 and 1995, academic biology and medicine were thoroughly transformed by political, financial and methodological pressures. This led to numerous department closures, reorganisations and shifts in scientific orientation. This book examines the policy context of these changes, then delves into a detailed analysis of reorganisations at seven emblematic British or French universities: Sussex, Manchester, Sheffield, ICL, Cambridge, Paris-6 and Paris-7. It demonstrates that the cascade of opportunities provoked by national policy decisions, while defining a general and powerful shift in a given direction, can lead to very different results depending on local configurations. This historical analysis should help define what tools and freedom a higher education institution has when faced with such sweeping change. It is intended to be of use to policy-makers, education analysts, historians of science and to anyone who takes an interest in how higher education shapes our future.

Autorentext

Gaël Lancelot, PhD (Manc.), studied and researched Biology and History of Science at several French and British Universities. He currently works for the European Distributed Institute of Taxonomy at the Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle (Paris).