127 Chapter XI pInheIro Brief historical snapshot he Finnish higher education (HE) sector has, in the last two decades or so, been the target of a series of government-led reform eforts. Starting in 2009, a series of voluntary institutional mergers were exercised in anticipation of the passing of a new, and rather disruptive, regulative framework (Aar- revaara, Dobson, & Elander, 2009). From a policy viewpoint, the primary rationale or logic (Maassen & Stensaker, 2011) behind these “modernisation” measures was that of increasing the eiciency and efectiveness (c.f. Gornitzka, Stensaker, Smeby, & De Boer, 2004) of the sector as a whole. In addi- tion, teaching quality and research excellence, par- ticularly amongst universities, were also targeted (Turunen, 2009). Under the auspices of the new Universities Act (in efect since 2010), the legal status of universities has changed as to strengthen institutional autonomy in areas like inancial man- agement and staf recruitment. As a consequence of the mergers, the number of universities was reduced from 20 to 16. Of these, the majority (14) are now independent corporations under public law, with the remaining as private foundations. All in all, the latest round of reforms targeting the university sub-sector aim at achieving three main goals: (i) improve universities’ capacity to react to his chapter traces the short-term efects of recent HE reform processes at the institutional level, by focusing on the case of a mid-size, comprehensive university (Oulu) located in a relatively peripheral region and with the mandate to serve the Northern most parts of the country. he irst part of the chapter provides a brief description of the external conditions (national and regional levels) under which the case university operates. It then moves on to il- lustrate the strategic steps (central and unit levels) undertaken by Oulu in order to adequate- ly respond to changes in its operational and regulative environments. he chapter concludes by highlighting the main lessons learnt and by suggesting avenues for future research. Keywords: Regional policy, higher education, Northern knowledge-structures, Norway Chapter XI Strategic Change in the Periphery: The Case of the University of Oulu Rómulo Pinheiro