Diversity of higher education systems, differentiation processes and policy mixes

Diversity of higher education is a highly contentious topic. While it is generally assumed that a diverse set of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) is beneficial to policy goals, such as access to education and research excel-lence, from a policy perspective, it can be argued that what matters it is not diversity per se, but to achieve a division of work to respond efficiently to demands from the state, academics, students and businesses.Historically, policy coordination in higher education was implemented through regulatory interventions, where the state recognized distinct types of HEIs. However, with the shift from an interventionistic to a supervisory role of the state, how to ensure coordination in HEI systems populated by autonomous actors has become more contentious. While Neo-liberal doctrines promoted the virtues of competitive differentiation, organizational theory suggests that competition has to be regulated and strong policy interventions are needed to achieve a clear differentiation of profiles. At the same time, the literature suggested that diversity is endangered by iso-morphic tendencies, by homogenizing pressures from international rankings and by policy interventions such as the introduction of the Bologna model.To address these questions, this project aims at achieving several advances in the study of higher education di-versity. First, we will develop a measurement framework for diversity that takes into account its multidimen-sional nature and the core distinction between typological and continuous diversity. To this aim, the PI’s work on a classification of European HEIs will be extended and the identified classes will be analyzed in terms of their organizational characteristics. This will allow providing a fine-grained analysis by observing both diversity be-tween types and the positioning strategies of individual HEIs. On this basis, a set of indicators to characterize HEI diversity will be proposed and tested on a large sample of European HEIs. Second, we will develop a longitu-dinal dataset on several of European countries to observe changes in the dimensions of diversity across a variety of national systems and over time. These data will be combined with an analysis of changes in policy mixes to analyze how public policies activate processes of competitive differentiation and of institutional compliance and to assess their impact on different dimensions of diversity. Third, through an in-depth case study in three coun-tries, the project will provide evidence on how public policies might achieve a suitable division of work within higher education systems and both maintain diversity and achieve coordination.Results will be of scholarly relevance for the higher education literature by advancing the understanding of het-erogeneity in higher education and by providing a comprehensive analysis of diversity over time and across countries. More in general, the project will also contribute to the public policy literature and organizational lit-erature: it will advance the understanding of how policy mixes might foster or reduce diversity and, relatedly, of the processes generating diversity in organizational fields. In addition, results will be of practical relevance for the design of higher education policies.The project will be realized by the PI with two PhD students and one postdoctoral researcher supported by three distinguished scholars in higher education studies (prof. Enders, University of Bath), studies of public policies (prof. Capano, University of Bologna) and organizational studies (prof. Wezel, USI Lugano) and by a panel of in-ternational experts.