Around the world, organizations of all kinds are merging at a frenetic pace. In a comparative study of two Canadian higher education mergers - that of the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education with the University of Toronto in 1996, and that of the Technical University of Nova Scotia with Dalhousie University in 1997 - Julia Eastman and Daniel Lang examine why and how universities merge and why some mergers succeed while others fail.

Drawing on extensive interviews with university members, public officials, and experts in organizational restructuring, and on their professional...