This paper contributes to the debate on institutional diversity in higher education systems by looking at the phenomenon from a comparative (crossnational) and longitudinal perspective. Despite the attention to diversity in policy debates, surprisingly, only a limited amount of studies address methodological issues. In addition, the number of empirical studies on institutional diversity is low as well. Data on various Western higher education systems are used to illustrate developments in systems' diversity. Furthermore, these data are put in the context of current national (and supranational) policy debates, particularly the role of governments and markets, on maintaining or increasing diversity.
This paper explores the relationship between the diversity within a higher education system and five key factors, namely: the environment, policy intervention, funding, competition and co-operation, and ranking. The exploration is based on the extent to which higher education systems, particularly those of Australia and New Zealand, have accommodated distinctive forms of higher education institutions characterised by the older traditional university at one extreme, and the newer university of technology at the other. Twelve interdependent propositions on diversity are proposed and discussed. These propositions indicate the ways in which each of the five key factors may influence institutional diversity or convergence. In the majority of circumstances, the convergent tendencies of institutions will predominate unless very specific environmental and economic conditions prevail, and/or specific directed policy is implemented.
Major restructuring to the Australian higher education sector was initiated in 1988 with the dismantling of the previous binary system and the introduction of the uni ed national system. Since this time the sector has been the subject of continuous review by government and the policy and funding framework for higher education research in particular has undergone a number of changes. After providing contextual information regarding Australia and its R&D effort, this paper examines a number of major reviews that have impacted on the higher education sector. Particular attention is directed to identifying changes in both policy and funding environment. It is argued that the crisis facing Australian universities is the result of not only inadequate funding but also an over-reliance by government on the market steering of the sector.· The new arrangements will promote greater diversity in higher education rather than any arti cial equalisation of institutional roles Downloaded by [Harvard Library] at 01:
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.