The central problem addressed by this paper is diversity in Australian higher education. We believe the problem is important for many reasons. Diversity is complex, and has many dimensions. We will argue that it is currently inhibited, and that it needs to be enhanced. The practical question then arises: "how might diversity be promoted?" We make some suggestions about enhancing diversity in Australian higher education toward the end of the paper.
That said, it should be noted that higher education in Australia is now more systemically diverse than ever before: there are more universities, and they are more different from one another. The system is also more programmatically diverse - there is greater diversity between and within universities in the kinds of programs and services they offer. Nevertheless, there is a strong sense among university academics, administrators and observers of Australia's system of higher education that the system is not as diverse as it could and should be. There is a pervasive sense that diversification in higher education in Australia is constrained both by strong inhibitors on increased diversity and by the weakness of factors that might enhance diversity.
The actual diversity of higher education in Australia is under-recognized and under-rewarded. Despite popular conceptions of the current state of diversity in higher education, we will argue that it should be more clearly recognized and better rewarded, and that it should be enhanced. Higher education policy at the national government level tends to push universities towards similarity rather than difference through the application of common policy templates, both symbolic and real. Furthermore, university level policy both mirrors this and inserts common academic values and norms, thus constraining diversity within. For reasons of principle and prudence, there is caution about policy instruments that might increase diversity, whether systemically (at the level of the Australian higher education system as a whole), or programmatically (at the level of the individual institution).
The Australian higher education system today is very dynamic. In our view, the 'universe' of higher education in Australia is expanding, and, as it does so, it is becoming more diverse. On the other hand, diversity is increasing more slowly than the rate of expansion of the system as a whole. In this expanding 'universe', both heterogeneity and homogeneity are increasing: although, on the one hand, institutions and institutional purposes and functions are and are becoming more diverse, on the other, government regulation, inter-institutional mimicry and widely-shared academic values and norms2 are producing tendencies towards convergence, 'isomorphism' and uniformity.
Talk of diversity tends to be abstract. It is inherently generalizing. As the observer stands back from the real work of universities to comment on higher education as a whole, the substance of diversity in Australian higher education somehow retreats from view, until we can't see the trees for the forest. The substance of diversity seems to be obscured, rather than illuminated, by the categories, taxonomies, hierarchies and discourses (especially discourses of policy, organization, management and administration) in terms of which diversity is described. In the end, we must confront diversity not in abstract terms but in the manifold variation and variability of what universities actually do - that is, in the domain described by Burton Clark as "the academic heartland".
Is it right, then, to say that we need worry no longer about the question of diversity, since (in our view) diversity and diversification are already strong features of Australian higher education? We think not. In our view, greater diversity and continuing diversification in Australian higher education are needed. To fulfil the as-yet-unfulfilled promise and potential of higher education services, individual universities and the higher education system as a whole must strengthen some factors that enhance diversity, and weaken some factors that inhibit it. |
