New rules of university governance in Denmark

In relation to the legislative activities in many parliaments in recent years regarding new rules of university governance this article tries to analyse how such new rules are implemented and used in daily practice at one specific university. In 1995 a survey study was conducted in a Danish university on the responses from the different internal university groups on the new Danish University Act of 1993. This article presents main findings in the ways the new law is interpreted and used by students, service staff, faculty and middle management. The study of the transformation of formal rules into daily management and cooperation practice shows that professional values, traditions and local culture have an important influence on the ways governance systems are seen and used. It appears that organisational change is slower and more contingency-oriented and incomplete than often imagined by legislators.