Diversity and Differentiation, Equity and Equality in a Marketised Higher Education System

Abstract

This chapter outlines some of the common manifestations of marketisation in contemporary higher education and discusses the extent to which the higher education market is a reality or a metaphor for a set of ideologically driven policies and processes---widely striven for but never achieved. It discusses the relationship between marketisation and sector differentiation and the extent to which calls for increased differentiation and diversity represent increased `consumer choice', or whether they signal a scramble for status in which poorer institutions and students are the losers, and claims for equality or fairness are compromised.