Higher education institutions: as different as chalk and cheese?

Abstract

Asserting that there is a lack of attention to operationalising and measuring institutional diversity in higher education, this paper attempts to fill the gap. Bearing on the use of the concept of diversity in biology, a model is proposed to conceptualise and measure diversity. The basic principles of three techniques (cluster analysis, ordination techniques, and calculating indices) are set out and examples are given of measurements of the level of diversity of different systems of higher education, such as the Netherlands, Australia, Denmark, Finland and the United Kingdom.