Improved institutional autonomy in higher education together with new funding and governance policies potentially alters the higher education landscape as universities increasingly seek to act strategically. However, how do the strategies the universities adapt affected the higher education landscape, its differentiation horizontally and vertically, within universities and among them? We ask: how should the transforming higher education landscape be characterised? How are the higher education systems previously deeply ingrained in their specific national context changing? Clark (1983) analyses differentiation in terms of sections and tires within universities, and sectors and hierarchies among them. The aim of this IP is to contribute to the objective of TRUE by “mapping” higher education systems’ diversity or potential convergence across the participating countries. TRUE aims at clarifying how steering and governance mechanism affect essential organizational characteristics of universities and to explore in turn how the transformation of essential organisational characteristics of universities affects the differentiation of the European higher education landscape. The IP adds to this aim a specific emphasise on how the potential strategies of the universities affect differentiation or promotes convergence in the higher education landscape.