Higher Education Review Process

Varieties of Excellence: Diversity, Specialisation and Regional Engagement

1. a vision for a diverse yet specialised system

1     One of the principles espoused for the Australian higher education system in Higher Education at the Crossroads, was that it be diverse:

Diverse and changing student expectations require a system that is able to accommodate varied choices and interests. Higher education institutions should not aspire to the same purpose, goals or organisational structure. Institutions need to evaluate their strengths, challenges and opportunities to forge their distinct and apposite mission within the higher education system. Universities need not have a monopolistic position or favoured status as service providers. There is room in the system for a range of providers that can cater for the needs of an increasingly diverse student population.
(Nelson, 2002, p.2)

2     The vision of a diverse higher education system could be manifested in a variety of ways, including in the structure, mission, course offerings, partnerships and financing of the sector, the student population and individual institutions. Complementarity would be achieved through collaboration and negotiation, and duplication would be strategic rather than inevitable. 

3     A vision shared by a number of the submissions to the Review is for a diverse system created through the facilitation of a national network of institutions, each of which maximises opportunities to build capacity and expertise in focused areas, drawing on existing strengths and strategic advantages. 

4     Some submissions focused on the need for institutions to further develop distinctive missions and identities:

The real value of diversity is that universities can grow a distinctive identity; such distinctiveness is a strength both of the university itself and the sector as a whole.
(Australian Catholic University, Submission 55, p.2)

It is most important within a system of mass higher education that our universities be allowed to specialise and diversify, so that each university can realise its own distinctive mission and characteristics relevant to its communities.
(BHERT, Submission 61, p.16)

5     The Australian Vice Chancellors’ Committee’s initial response to Higher Education at the Crossroads, put forward ten working principles, including one to “support diversity”. They argued that the “funding and regulatory arrangements should focus universities on their declared mission and provide a coherent range of funding options to facilitate their individual institutional objectives” (Submission 22, p.8). 

6     There need not be inconsistency between the achievement of a higher education sector that is diverse and one that is specialised. Diversity can be achieved through greater specialisation. The prevailing norm in Australia of the research intensive, comprehensive university need not be the only possible conception of a higher education institution. International comparisons present a range of different options for the structure and orientation of higher education institutions, including institutions that may be strategically specialised in their mission, policies and practices. 

7     A number of submissions from universities endorsed the need for greater specialisation, both within the system and within institutions: 

A great deal of change is still to happen in higher education. Specialisations need to be developed within universities and partnership arrangements will have to be forged between universities and with industry.
(University of Newcastle, Submission 183, p.10)

Universities should be encouraged to work with their clients and communities to develop appropriate areas of specialisation based on institutional strengths.
(Deakin University, Submission 95, p.15) 

8     This paper canvasses some possible ways in which Australian higher education can be a responsibly diverse and specialised sector. 

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