[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":3,"doc-seo-595362-105":59,"doc-detail-595362-en":130},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",[7,13,18,23,28,33,38,43,48,51,55],{"id":8,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":10,"show_sort_weight":11,"slug":12},1,"Document","Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":14,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":15,"show_sort_weight":16,"slug":17},2,"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":19,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":20,"show_sort_weight":21,"slug":22},4,"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":24,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":25,"show_sort_weight":26,"slug":27},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":29,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":30,"show_sort_weight":31,"slug":32},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":34,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":35,"show_sort_weight":36,"slug":37},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":39,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":40,"show_sort_weight":41,"slug":42},8,"Research & Report",30,"research-report",{"id":44,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":45,"show_sort_weight":46,"slug":47},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":46,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":49,"show_sort_weight":46,"slug":50},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":52,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":53,"show_sort_weight":52,"slug":54},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":56,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":57,"show_sort_weight":24,"slug":58},19,"General","general",{"code":4,"msg":60,"data":61},"ok",{"site_id":62,"language":63,"slug":64,"title":65,"keywords":66,"description":67,"schema_data":68,"social_meta":123,"head_meta":125,"extra_data":127,"updated_unix":129},105,"en","australian-universities-review-diversity-and-convergence-in-australian-higher-education","Australian Universities’ Review - Diversity and Convergence in Australian Higher Education","","Diversity between higher-education institutions and the countertrend of convergence are presented as conceptually difficult yet central for understanding limits on innovation in research and teaching. In a policy context that foregrounds student-centred learning, the article examines how deregulation, market mechanisms, and competition are assumed to expand educational variety and choice, and tests whether this change has actually produced more diversity. It argues that answering these issues requires a rigorous, data-based, policy-relevant method defining diversity types and measuring variation across and within institutions over time.",{"@graph":69,"@context":122},[70,84,105],{"@type":71,"itemListElement":72},"BreadcrumbList",[73,77,79,82],{"item":74,"name":75,"@type":76,"position":8},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":78,"name":9,"@type":76,"position":14},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/",{"item":80,"name":40,"@type":76,"position":81},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/",3,{"item":83,"name":65,"@type":76,"position":19},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/australian-universities-review-diversity-and-convergence-in-australian-higher-education/595362/",{"url":83,"name":65,"@type":85,"image":86,"author":91,"headline":65,"publisher":94,"fileFormat":97,"inLanguage":63,"description":67,"dateModified":98,"datePublished":99,"encodingFormat":97,"isAccessibleForFree":100,"interactionStatistic":101},"DigitalDocument",{"url":87,"@type":88,"width":89,"height":90},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/australian-universities-review-diversity-and-convergence-in-australian-higher-education/595362.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":92,"@type":93},"Blitz","Person",{"url":74,"name":95,"@type":96},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-10-20","2026-10-15",true,{"@type":102,"interactionType":103,"userInteractionCount":8},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":104},"ViewAction",{"@type":106,"mainEntity":107},"FAQPage",[108,114,118],{"name":109,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":111},"Why are diversity and convergence in higher education described as important but hard to measure?","Question",{"text":112,"@type":113},"The article notes that diversity (and its absence) are difficult to define and quantify, yet they strongly shape student experience and constrain innovation in research and teaching.","Answer",{"name":115,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":116},"What policy logic assumes deregulation leads to greater educational variety and student choice?",{"text":117,"@type":113},"It describes the conventional view that deregulation of missions and course mix, combined with market mechanisms like tuition fees and competition, makes institutions respond to students and thus generates a more varied higher-education system over time.",{"name":119,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":120},"What approach does the article say is needed to answer questions about diversity trends?",{"text":121,"@type":113},"It argues for a conceptually rigorous, data-based, and policy-based method: define diversity (recognizing multiple types), make judgements about which types are desired, and use statistics to measure variation between and within institutions and how it changes over time.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":83,"og:type":124,"og:title":65,"og:site_name":95,"og:description":67},"article",{"robots":126,"canonical":83},"index,follow",{"doc_id":128,"site_id":62},595362,1792474306,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":131},{"doc_id":128,"user_id":132,"nickname":92,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":39,"category_name":40,"doc_title":65,"doc_description":67,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":8,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":8,"is_downloadable":8,"audit_status":8,"page_count":139,"language":140,"language_code":63,"site_id":62,"html_lang":63,"table_of_contents":141,"faqs":142,"seo_title":143,"seo_description":67,"update_tm":144,"read_time":41},24464137899374,"https://us-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_3d24733baf745e90a7e4bdd5f77d97b2","A U S T R A L I A N U N I V E R S I T I E S ’ R E V I E W  \nArticles  \nDiversity and convergence in Australian higher education  \nSIMON MARGINSON  \nMonash University  \nQuestions of diversity between higher education institutions, and the other side of the coin which is convergence between institutions (sameness, homogeneity), are tricky but important. Diversity and its absence are difficult to define and measure. Yet they shape the potential of the student experience, and the limits of innovation in research and teaching.  \nIn an era in which student-centred learning has been foregrounded, the question of the range of educational choices should be of central interest to policy makers. The conventional view is that following the deregulation of missions and course mix, now determined by universities themselves, and with the growing role of market mechanisms such as tuition fees and competition, institutions are being rendered ‘naturally’ responsive to students. Diverse student needs will become matched by diversity in provision, so that over time a greater variety of higher education will emerge. As Meek and Wood put it:  \nEvery official statement on higher education since the Green Paper has stressed the need for a more diverse and responsive set of higher education institutions. Competition in a deregulated environment is seen asa key factor in accomplishing this goal, and the commitment to competition has not changed even if the government has.1  \nThe assumption that market deregulation is automatically associated with greater educational variety and choice is supported in some of the academic literature.2 But has it really happened? There is also the question of the end of the binary system, which is still discussed a decade later. Has the abolition of the colleges of advanced education led to more diversity, or less? Where are we heading now: towards greater diversity between institutions, or less? What kinds of diversity are desirable? What kinds should disappear?  \nTo answer these questions requires a method which is at the same time conceptually rigorous, data-based, and policy-based. We need to define what we mean by diversity, recognising there is more than one kind of diversity at stake. We need to make judgements about which kinds of diversity are desired. And we need a statistical fix on the variations between and within institutions in the present, and trends in those variations over time.  \nThere has been little solid research on these topics in Australia. Rhetoric about diversity is abundant, especially in university marketing departments of individual universities, which all claim that their institution is unique - while at the same time assuring prospective students that their institution can do everything that its competitors do, only better! But individual universities rarely support system-level research. Where they do gather data on the broader picture, it mostly takes the form of targeted bench-marking exercises centred not on the system as a whole but the interests of the institution concerned: that is, research that is Pre-Copernican rather than Copernican in outlook, as if the system revolves around themselves. Such an approach to research is consistent with the dominance of the marketing outlook.  \nNevertheless, there have been two recent studies of diversity in Australian higher education conducted from a system vantage point, both financed by the Higher Education Division of the Commonwealth Department of Education, Training and Youth Affairs (DETYA) .3 Governments have biases, too, but is to the credit of the Higher Education Division that it benefits from reflective research on the sector, and commissions academic studies which raise sometimes uncomfortable issues.(How much of this research actually informs Howard/ Kemp Government policy is a moot point, but that is another story) .4  \nThis article begins by assessing the two recent DETYAfinanced studies of diversity, and then takes the issues  \nA","cbCaivPJyF4xsqIB","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaivPJyF4xsqIB","pdf",224602,12,"English","# Diversity and convergence in Australian higher education\n## Challenges in defining and measuring diversity\n## Policy assumptions about deregulation and choice\n## Method requirements: definitions, judgements, and statistical analysis\n## System-level research and DETYA-financed studies\n## Scope and focus on inter-institutional diversity","[{\"question\":\"Why are diversity and convergence in higher education described as important but hard to measure?\",\"answer\":\"The article notes that diversity (and its absence) are difficult to define and quantify, yet they strongly shape student experience and constrain innovation in research and teaching.\"},{\"question\":\"What policy logic assumes deregulation leads to greater educational variety and student choice?\",\"answer\":\"It describes the conventional view that deregulation of missions and course mix, combined with market mechanisms like tuition fees and competition, makes institutions respond to students and thus generates a more varied higher-education system over time.\"},{\"question\":\"What approach does the article say is needed to answer questions about diversity trends?\",\"answer\":\"It argues for a conceptually rigorous, data-based, and policy-based method: define diversity (recognizing multiple types), make judgements about which types are desired, and use statistics to measure variation between and within institutions and how it changes over time.\"}]","Australian Universities’ Review - Diversity and Convergence in Australian Higher Education | PDF",1792080990]