Restructuring higher education:a comparative analysis between Australia and the Netherlands

It must be considered that there is nothing more difficult to carry out, nor more doubtful to success, than to initiate a new order of things. For the reformer has enemies in all those who profit by the old order, and only lukewarm defenders in all those who profit by the new order, this lukewarmness arising partly from fear of their adversaries, who have the laws in their favour; and partly from the incredulity of mankind, who do not truly believe in anything new until they have actual experience of it. (Machiavelli

Pyramids, prisons and picturesque housing:a discussion on diversity in higher education

Part of what has given higher education its remarkable stability in recent years has been its diversity. From the point of view of policy, there are three kinds of diversity in higher education: systemic, programmatic, and structural. Binary higher education systems, representing a form of systemic diversification, have evolved as a response to the massification of higher education. However, because of a number of factors, the perceived ideal remains the traditional university. The non‐university components of binary systems tend increasingly to resemble universities through processes of academic drift. To prevent these processes which in fact negate many of the intentions of planned diversification, social esteem and prestige must be built into all sectors which will then have an interest in preserving their individual identities