Philip G. Altbach & Liz Reisberg 
Responding to Massification [PDF ebook] 
Differentiation in Postsecondary Education Worldwide

Global massification of postsecondary education, with more than 200 million students studying at an untold number of institutions focusing on every specialization possible, necessitates a differentiated system of postsecondary education in every country. This book provides the first comparative study of how postsecondary education has evolved in 13 countries. The study offers an analysis of current global realities and how different nations have constructed their response. Our research shows that few countries have developed rational and differentiated academic systems to meet new realities. The book provides insights regarding useful approaches for the development of academic systems. The book reveals similarities and differences in the 13 case studies as different governments have expanded postsecondary education to respond to the massification of enrollment. Postsecondary education has become diversified, but for the most part not adequately differentiated in most countries. Several of the case studies underscore the challenge of sustaining differentiation within the system if credentials from non-university, postsecondary institutions are considered of lesser social status. Too often institutions that successfully address the practical needs of national economies are ultimately merged into the university system. There is an urgent need for the planning and structuring of coherent systems of postsecondary education to serve the increasingly diverse clientele in need of the skills required by the knowledge economy. This study is the first global analysis aimed at understanding how post-secondary education can be organized to meet society’s requirements and points to the need for designing coherent academic systems.

Зміст

Foreword; About the sponsors; Executive summary; The necessity and reality of differentiated postsecondary systems; Diversification and differentiation in postsecondary education: What the research shows; Africa; Differentiated postsecondary systems and the role of the university: The case of Egypt; Differentiation within the postsecondary education sector in Ghana; Asia & Australasia; Institutional differentiation in Australian postsecondary education: Hit and miss; A differentiated postsecondary education system in mainland China; India’s growth of postsecondary education: Scale, speed and fault lines; The consequences of market-based mass postsecondary education: Japan’s challenges; Europe; Democratization of postsecondary education in France: Diverse and complementary institutions; The expansion and structural change of postsecondary education in Germany; Diversity and uniformity in the structure of Russian postsecondary education; United Kingdom: From binary to confusion; Latin America; Brazilian postsecondary education in the twenty first century: A conservative modernization; Against all odds: How Chile developed a successful technical and vocational sector in postsecondary education; North America; The transformation of the system of postsecondary education in the United States; Conclusion; Massification and differentiation in postsecondary education: A marriage of convenience?; Author Biographies.