Institutional Diversity in Higher Education: a Cross-National and Longitudinal Analysis

Abstract

This paper contributes to the debate on institutional diversity in higher education systems by looking at the phenomenon from a comparative (cross national) 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.