How do participation and competition affect diversity in higher education?
In last week’s CGHE seminar, Professor Simon Marginson argues that the increased marketisation of higher education is associated with an increase in imitating behaviour and the narrowing of mission differences, rather than diversity.
Professor Marginson reviews the scholarly evidence and reflects on the outcomes of a recent review of high participation higher education in eight countries.
He argues that in relation to growth, it is difficult to separate the effects of expanding participation from contextual factors, but the overall tendencies appear to be (1) an increase in vertical stratification, (2) growth in the importance of large multi-disciplinary multi-purpose institutions, (3) a decline in horizontal diversity overall, and (4) an increase in internal diversity within larger institutions.
Read coverage in Times Higher Education or listen to the seminar and download the paper and presentation.
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