In this contribution both the literature and the present-day policies regarding diversity in higher education systems will be discussed. The first part presents an overview of the theoretical and empirical studies on differentiation and diversity. Based on this, a conceptual framework is presented, which intends to explain the processes of differentiation and dedifferentiation in higher education systems. Two crucial variables are identified, and both have a crucial impact on the behaviour of higher education institutions: the level of uniformity in the environment of higher education institutions and the level of influence of academic norms and values in these institutions. The second part of this contribution focuses on current higher education policies. Hoping to create better and stronger contributions by higher education institutions to the 'knowledge society', many governments nowadays develop policies of less state control and more autonomy. It will be argued that these policies do not automatically lead to more diversity in higher education systems. The reason for this is simply that markets work imperfectly in higher education systems and that the behaviour of higher education institutions is triggered by competition for reputation, a process producing several unintended consequences. In this latter context the recent rankings and typologies in higher education are also discussed. Higher Education Policy (2008) 21, 151-174.

Abstract.In this article a number of elements of a general model of quality assessment in higher education are presented. On the one hand these elements are put in a historical context of quality assessment in Medieval universities and, on the other hand, deduced from the recent experiences with quality assessment in both North-American and Western European countries. With respect to the historical context a distinction is made between the intrinsic and the extrinsic values of higher education. Two types of quality assessment related to these values are also distinguished. Concerning the recent experiences with quality assessment systems, the practices in the U.S.A., Canada, France, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom are explored. In the final section the general mode of quality assessment is discussed in the context of the distinction between the intrinsic and the extrinsic values of higher education. The historical roots of quality assessment in higher educationFrom the early days of higher education on, the assessment of the quality of its processes and products has been an important focus of attention for higher education institutions. In this historical attention for quality a certain tension is found which we nowadays still experience and which sometimes appears to be the source of heated debates.Already in Medieval higher education a distinction can be made between two extreme models of quality assessment. Neither of these two models is of course found in the actual history of European higher education. The models rather point to two crucial dimensions of quality assessment in higher education. Referring to their historical backgrounds, we will call one model the French model of vesting control in an extemal authority (Cobban 1988, p. 124). The other model we will call the English model of a self-governing community of fellows.The French model can be illustrated by the dramatic struggle for autonomy by the University of Paris in the early thirteenth century. It was the chancellor of the cathedral of Nrtre Dame, acting as the delegate of the bishop of Pads, who represented the then dominating episcopal outlook that the universities should be seen as 'ecclesiastical colonies.' The universities were viewed as higher forms of education that were, however, to be integrated in the ecclesiastical structure and that were to remain under episcopal authority. The chancellor of the cathedral of N6tre Dame was an external official set above the masters' guild. As such he claimed the authority to grant or to withhold the teaching license and he claimed the right to decide about the content of studies. The masters fought the chancellor's authority. And after a long and bitter conflict, Pope Gregory IX in his bull called

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