Student Academic Diversity and University Administration

Abstract

This article seeks to draw attention to the phenomenon of the academic diversity of students studying at universities and to articulate a research agenda for studying this phenomenon and its relationship with the university administration. We conducted a review of the existing literature and statistical data about Russia, which has allowed us to identify a range of possible reasons for why academic diversity is on the rise at universities and to offer a set of basic conditions for determining its level. The article first analyzes academic diversity as a contextual variable together with the organizational characteristics of the universities. We demonstrate its importance for university administration. The author also provides a range of theoretical frameworks that can be used to analyze university administration in the context of high academic diversity. A more detailed study of administrative practices at universities is needed as a follow-up to this article. The results of this study may be used to expand the existing research agenda in higher education as well as to analyze and plan measures at specific universities.

Acknowledgments

The author is grateful to fellow researchers at the HSE Laboratory for University Development, Isak Froumin and Bjorn Stensaker, for their helpful comments.

Notes

1. PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) is an international educational monitoring study, which has been carried out among 15-year-old students at high schools and vocational institutions every 3 years since 2000. It includes tests in mathematics, natural sciences, and reading. It also includes questions for students and school administrators. See http://www.oecd.org/pisa.

2. https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/docserver/9789264266490-en. pdf?expires=1531126650&id=id&accname=oid008831&checksum= FD 62836CFD 8E 474A4236424AA1414D 00

3. http://www.gks.ru/bgd/regl/b16_13/Main.htm

4. S. Marginson, “High participation systems (HPS) of higher education,” in B. Cantwel; S. Marginson; and A. Smolentceva (eds.), High Participation Systems of Higher Education, forthcoming.