ABSTRACT
The previous three chapters have discussed how Germany, the Netherlands, and Sweden tried to redefine the student career from the mid 1950s to the mid 1990s. Since the nineteenth century, the goals, purposes, and definitional boundaries of the student career have been defined in law by each state. The student career of the past was defined exclusively as academic study, only loosely tied to national goals and purposefully devoid of administrative control mechanisms. “Study” was a process, a phenomenon in itself, with its own ideological traditions and ideals. The student career of today is a mixture of many different and sometimes conflicting purposes and goals, having incorporated over the years different social expectations and new structural components.
