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The second half of the twentieth century brought an enormous rise in the education level in almost all Eastern European countries. Education became a mass phenomenon. Many new universities emerged, and the number of their employees engaged in research and teaching increased.

The chapter shows substantial changes in the Polish higher education system since 1990. These changes were associated with the shift from centralized, controlled economy to market economy in the context of the economic globalization and democratization. The increased number of students and the emergence of many private universities are a response to the growing educational aspirations of the Polish society. The changes are a subject of public debate focused on advantages and disadvantages of the functioning of private universities and paid studies at state universities. The basic issue will soon not be the education level, but its quality; the name of the university, which issued a given diploma; and doctoral studies, which are now of more elitist character than studies offering lower degrees.

Walter R. Allen is Allan Murray Cartter Professor in Higher Education, Graduate School of Education and Information Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles. He is also distinguished professor of sociology and director of CHOICES, a longitudinal study of college attendance among African Americans and Latinos in California. Allen's research interests include higher education, race and ethnicity, family patterns, and social inequality. He has been a consultant to courts, communities, business, and government. Allen's more than 100 publications include: Towards a Brighter Tomorrow: College Barriers, Hopes and Plans of Black, Latino/a and Asian American Students in California (2009); Till Victory is Won: The African American Struggle for Higher Education in California (2009); Everyday Discrimination in a National Sample of Incoming Law Students (2008); Higher Education in a Global Society: Achieving Diversity, Equity and Excellence (2006); Enacting Diverse Learning Environments: Improving the Climate for Racial/Ethnic Diversity in Higher Education (1999); College in Black and White: African American Students in Predominantly White and Historically Black Public Universities (1991); and The Colorline and the Quality of Life in America (1989).

Hugh Africa, Council on Higher Education (South Africa)

Hugh Africa returned to South Africa in July 1994 after an absence of 30 years. His deep involvement at all levels of education – from basic to university – covers almost four decades. After obtaining the B.A. and B.A. (Hons) degrees from the University of Natal, he completed the M.A. degree at the University of Leeds and received his Ph.D. at the University of Toronto. He also holds a Natal Teacher's Diploma.

At its core, education serves to develop individual and societal knowledge. In our increasingly diverse societies, the knowledge through educational channels also conveys norms and cultural values from respective states and nations. At the same time that educational institutions ensure their longevity and relevance through services to and support from these broader levels, they also risk elevating any one cultural “story” or perspective as “the story,” to the exclusion of other member perspectives (Van Sledright, 2008, p. 110). This frustrating dilemma has unique consequences for higher education since these institutions prioritize knowledge pursuits and often have greater similarities in their discovery and application activities across their diverse, international sector than within the specific political or social contexts that characterize their state or national locations (Enders, 2004).

W.E.B. Du Bois proclaimed the colorline as the problem of the 20th century; in similar fashion, the problem of the 21st century could be characterized as the “wealth divide” or more clearly, the challenge of extreme economic disparity alongside broad socio-cultural diversity. Women-of-color scholars have used various concepts such as “the matrix of domination” (King, 1988), “intersectionality” (Collins, 1991), “borderlands” (Anzaldúa, 1987) and critical race theory (Crenshaw, 1995) to demonstrate that the “problems of the 21st century” are related to rapidly expanding diversity alongside stubbornly persistent economic inequities across race, ethnicity, gender, class, language, citizenship and nation. Extensive technological, economic, political and social changes, along with immigration, have coalesced to produce a global community of great diversity and interpenetration. Unfortunately, this global community continues to be fractured by extreme disparities in wealth, divided into “have” and “have-not” societies (Chua, 2003).

Any discussion of diversity in higher and tertiary institutions would be incomplete without connecting the conversation to the broader aims of the University. Since its European origins, the University was founded on goals to pursue knowledge and, in more recent times, to provide that knowledge to a student body representative of its community and nation (Rhodes, 2001). Educators recognize that the role of the University now and in the future takes on greater importance given the central role that knowledge plays in the new millennium. Greater demands for and application of knowledge in our society suggest the need for more inclusive learning environments, where scholars and students develop and share their intellectual resources in more efficient and timely ways.