This chapter addresses the concepts of diversity and differentiation in higher education. It explores the literature regarding these concepts and offers a conceptual framework which seeks to explain why processes of differentiation and dedif-ferentiation take place in higher education systems.
When discussing external diversity and processes of system differentiation, we will discuss the behaviour of the various “actors” in the system. These actors to a large extent are the higher education organisations that are part of a higher education system. We will interpret these organisations as “corporate actors” (Coleman 1990, p. 531), and will assume that the explanation of social phenomena like differentiation and diversity is possible by means of analysing the behaviour and/or opinions of these corporate actors who need not necessarily be natural persons (although the activities of corporate actors are of course carried out by people).
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van Vught, F. (2009). Diversity and Differentiation in Higher Education. In: van Vught, F. (eds) Mapping the Higher Education Landscape. Higher Education Dynamics, vol 28. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-2249-3_1
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