Regional Universities and the Learning Society: roles and influence on educational policy and practice

Abstract

The roles of regional universities should not be underestimated in terms of their influence (economic, political, social and cultural) within the regions. This paper examines one regional university and uses that institution as an example to illustrate both the influence of the university on the region and the impact the regional university has been able to exert on educational policy and practice at the national level. This case study is analysed within the framework of Luhman's theory of the socio-functional equilibrium. This theory explains that a social system has its own dynamic and, as a result, different components and the relationships between these components, within and outside the system, will be harmonised into a self-organising or 'autopoietic' system.