ABSTRACT
This chapter analyzes the characteristics of the Nordic model of higher education, their meanings and effects. The analysis also addresses the recent and ongoing transformation of the Nordic model and its national applications owing to global competition and comparisons. The chapter discusses the Nordic model of higher education is examined in its broad socio-historical context. The dominant position of Lutheranism contributed to the development of a particular kind of work ethic and the appreciation of literacy, which corresponded to the goals of full employment and equal opportunities found in Nordic welfare state policy. The Second World War and its end accelerated the transformation. Education was involved in the political transformation of the modern state as a producer of the rationalist ideology and its sustainers, as well as a part of social rights and social services. The Anglo-Saxon or Anglo-Saxon-American model, the Continental European model and the Nordic model are often the first models mentioned.
