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Massification and Diversity of Higher Education Systems: Interplay of Complex Dimensions

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Abstract

This paper provides a synthetic overview of the complex dimensions that shape the interrelations between the massification of higher education systems and their structure and composition. Many higher education systems worldwide expanded extensively in the last decades, and have undergone wide and deep structural changes. Most notably, the diversity of many higher education systems has increased dramatically, both horizontally and vertically. We address in this paper the following issues: external and internal boundaries of higher education systems; top-down and bottom-up forces; globalization and supra-national trends; flexibility; and public and private sectors. These themes highlight most crucial issues to which higher education policy makers are advised to pay attention to when deliberating what are the best ways to implement the expansion of their higher education systems, and what should be the desirable diversity in their national contexts.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Education and Psychology, The Open University of Israel, P.O. Box 808, Raanana, 43107, Israel

    Sarah Guri-Rosenblit

  2. Centre for Higher Education Studies (CHES), U Luzickeho Seminaire 13, Prague 1, 11800, Czech Republic

    Helena Šebková

  3. International Centre for Higher Education Research, University of Kassel, Kassel, D-34109, Germany

    Ulrich Teichler

Authors
  1. Sarah Guri-Rosenblit
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  2. Helena Šebková
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  3. Ulrich Teichler
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Guri-Rosenblit, S., Šebková, H. & Teichler, U. Massification and Diversity of Higher Education Systems: Interplay of Complex Dimensions. High Educ Policy 20, 373–389 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.hep.8300158

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