Academic diversity and university governance: the formation of a research agenda

This article is designed to draw attention to such phenomenon as academic diversity of students within universities and to specify the research agenda for studying this phenomenon and its relationship with university management. A review of existing literature and statistics on the example of Russia allows for a) identifying the range of possible reasons for the growth of academic diversity in higher education institutions, and b) offering basic prerequisites for defining its level. For the first time the article analyses the academic diversity as a contextual variable and the organizational characteristic of higher education institutions, and justifies its significance for university governance and management. The author also provides a range of theoretical framework through which university governance can be analysed in the context of high academic diversity. The continuation of this work will be a more detailed study of universities management practices. The results of this work can be used to expand the current research agenda in the field of higher education, as well as to analyse and plan the activities of certain universities.