Abstract
In this contribution both the literature and the present-day policies regarding diversity in higher education systems will be discussed. The first part presents an overview of the theoretical and empirical studies on differentiation and diversity. Based on this, a conceptual framework is presented, which intends to explain the processes of differentiation and dedifferentiation in higher education systems. Two crucial variables are identified, and both have a crucial impact on the behaviour of higher education institutions: the level of uniformity in the environment of higher education institutions and the level of influence of academic norms and values in these institutions. The second part of this contribution focuses on current higher education policies. Hoping to create better and stronger contributions by higher education institutions to the ‘knowledge society’, many governments nowadays develop policies of less state control and more autonomy. It will be argued that these policies do not automatically lead to more diversity in higher education systems. The reason for this is simply that markets work imperfectly in higher education systems and that the behaviour of higher education institutions is triggered by competition for reputation, a process producing several unintended consequences. In this latter context the recent rankings and typologies in higher education are also discussed.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Aldrich, H.E. (1979) Organizations and Environments, Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall.
Bartelse, J. and van Vught, F. (2007) ‘Institutional profiles: toward a typology of higher education institutions in Europe’, IAU Horizons 13 (2–3): 9–11.
Birnbaum, R. (1983) Maintaining Diversity in Higher Education, San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Bowen, H. (1980) The Cost of Higher Education, San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Brewer, D.J., Gates, S.M. and Goldman, C.A. (2002) In Pursuit of Prestige: Strategy and Competition in US Higher Education, New Brunswick: Transaction Press.
Carnegie Commission on Higher Education. (1973) The Purposes and the Performance of Higher Education in the United States, New York: McGraw-Hill.
Clark, B.R. (1978) ‘United States’, in J.H. van de Graaff, B.R. Clark, D. Furth, D. Goldschmidt and D. Wheeler (eds.) Academic Power: Patterns of Authority in Seven National Systems, New York: Praeger.
Clark, B.R. (1983) The Higher Education System, Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.
Coleman, J.S. (1990) Foundation of Social Theory, Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Dill, D.D. (2003) ‘Allowing the market to rule: the case of the United States’, Higher Education Quarterly 57 (2): 136–157.
DiMaggio, P.J. and Powell, W.W. (1983) ‘The iron cage revisited: institutional isomorphism and collective rationality in organizational fields’, American Sociological Review 48: 147–160.
Durkheim, E. (1964 1893) The Division of Labor in Society, New York: The Free Press.
Fox, W. (1993) ‘Higher education policy in California’, in L. Goedegebuure, F. Kaiser, P. Maassen, L. Meek, F. van Vught and E. de Weert (eds.) Higher Education Policy: An International Comparative Perspective, Oxford: Pergamon Press, pp. 49–82.
Friedman, B.M. (2002) ‘Globalization: Stiglitz's case’, (Review of Joseph E. Stiglitz, Globalization and its discontents), New York Review, 15 August 2002.
Garvin, D.A. (1980) The Economics of University Behavior, New York: Academic Press.
Geiger, R.L. (2004) Knowledge and Money, Research Universities and the Paradox of the Marketplace, Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Hannan, M.T. and Freeman, J. (1977) ‘The population ecology of organizations’, American Journal of Sociology 82: 929–964.
Hannan, M.T. and Freeman, J. (1989) Organizational Ecology, Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Hawley, A.H. (1986) Human Ecology; A Theoretical Essay, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Huisman, J. (1995) Differentiation, Diversity and Dependency in Higher Education, Utrecht: Lemma.
Huisman, J., Meek, L. and Wood, F. (2007) ‘Institutional diversity in higher education: a cross-national and longitudinal analysis’, Higher Education Quarterly 61 (4): 563–577.
Maassen, P.A.M. and Potman, H.P. (1990) ‘Strategic decision making in higher education, an analysis of the new planning system in Dutch higher education’, Higher Education 20: 393–410.
Massy, W.F. (2003) Honoring the Trust, Quality and Cost Containment in Higher Education, Boston: Anker.
Meek, V.L. (1991) ‘The transformation of Australian higher education: from binary to unitary system’, Higher Education 21: 461–494.
Meek, V.L. (2003) ‘Governance and management of Australian higher education: enemies within and without’, in A. Amaral, V.L. Meek and I.M. Larsen (eds.) The Higher Education Management Revolution?, Dordrecht: Kluwer, pp. 235–260.
Merton, R. (1968) Social Theory and Social Structure, New York: The Free Press.
Morgan, G. (1986) Images of Organization, London: Sage.
Morphew, C.C. (2006) ‘Conceptualizing change in the institutional diversity of US colleges and universities’, Mimeo, Institute of Higher Education, University of Georgia.
Neave, G. (1979) ‘Academic drift: some views from Europe’, Studies in Higher Education 4 (2): 143–159.
Newman, F., Couturier, L. and Scurry, J. (2004) The Future of Higher Education, Rhetoric, Reality and the Risks of the Marketplace, San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Parsons, T. (1966) Societies: Evolutionary and Comparative Perspectives, Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall.
Parsons, T. and Platt, G.M. (1973) The American University, Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Pfeffer, J. and Salancik, G.R. (1978) The External Control of Organizations, A Resource Dependence Perspective, New York: Harper and Row.
Rhoades, G. (1983) ‘Conflicting interests in higher education’, American Journal of Education 91: 283–327.
Rhoades, G. (1990) ‘Political competition and differentiation in higher education’, in J.C. Alexander and P. Colony (eds.) Differentiation Theory and Social Change, New York: Columbia University Press, pp. 187–221.
Riesman, D. (1956) Constraint and Variety in American Education, Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.
Skolnik, M.L. (1986) ‘Diversity in higher education: the Canadian case’, Higher Education in Europe 11: 19–32.
Smelser, N. (1959) Social Change in the Industrial Revolution, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Trow, M. (1979) Elite and Mass Higher Education: American Models and European Realities, Stockholm: National Board of Universities.
van Vught, F. (1992) Governmental Strategies and Innovation in Higher Education, London: Jessica Kingsley.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
van Vught, F. Mission Diversity and Reputation in Higher Education. High Educ Policy 21, 151–174 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1057/hep.2008.5
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/hep.2008.5