Differentiation in higher education and its consequences for social inequality: introduction to a special issue

Abstract

In recent decades institutions of higher education have changed considerably in most European countries. In order to meet the growing demand for higher education, national higher education systems have ‘‘diversified’’ through the creation of second-tier institutions, such as the Polytechnics in Britain or the Fachhochschulen in Germany. There is a large body of research concerned with the sources, development and internal dynamics of institutional differentiation in higher education (e.g. Teichler 1988, Huismann 1995, Meek et al. 1996, Huismann et al. 2007). In many countries higher education institutions also vary in reputation and prestige (e.g. Teichler 2008, Moodie 2009) and in some countries these differences have even been reinforced by educational policy during the last decades. Besides this vertical differentiation of institutions, horizontal differentiation within institutions of higher education can be observed also, i.e. a growing diversification of programmes, courses and fields of study. Different types of programmes such as academic versus professional programmes were introduced or different levels such as Bachelor and Master have been implemented. Not least due to the harmonisation efforts by the so-called ‘Bologna process‘, these forms of differentiation have been accelerated and have become increasingly relevant in European higher education systems. Although quite a number of recent publications deal with these institutional aspects of diversification in higher education, only a few studies examine the influence of a changing structure on the individual level, e.g. individual behaviour regarding choices and access to higher education, educational careers and labour market outcomes of different institutions. The simultaneous increase in overall participation in post-secondary education in most countries and institutional differentiation are presumably reflected in social selective access to the different institutions of higher education. There are two possible scenarios: Differentiation provides more opportunities in terms of programmes and levels, and less priviledged students are diverted to lower tiers whereas elite institutions remain highly