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Higher Education Institutions, Types and Classifications of

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Encyclopedia of International Higher Education Systems and Institutions

Synonyms

Classification; taxonomy; typology

Definition

Typologies and classifications distill a complex reality such as a heterogeneous population of higher education institutions into something simpler – something that is more manageable from both cognitive and analytic perspectives. Such groupings assemble entities into categories or classes that share common features and meaningfully differentiate them from those in other categories. The resulting categories can serve many purposes. For example, in the case of higher education they can

  • Serve as shorthand for quickly characterizing an institution, especially if the groupings are widely understood and consensually accepted

  • Be incorporated or enshrined in policy for purposes of resource allocation and system differentiation

  • Help prospective students or staff members identify the pool of institutions they might wish to join

  • Be used in research for sampling, data analysis, or both

For the purposes of this entry, we consider the terms...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Postsecondary Research, Indiana University, 1900 E. 10th Street, Suite 419, 47406, Bloomington, IN, USA

    Alexander C. McCormick & Victor M. H. Borden

Authors
  1. Alexander C. McCormick
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  2. Victor M. H. Borden
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Correspondence to Alexander C. McCormick .

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McCormick, A.C., Borden, V.M.H. (2017). Higher Education Institutions, Types and Classifications of. In: Encyclopedia of International Higher Education Systems and Institutions. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9553-1_22-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9553-1_22-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-94-017-9553-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-017-9553-1

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