Institutionalization Of World Class University In Global Competition

Moving the academic debate on from its current focus on development to a more nuanced sociological perspective, this fresh research is a collaboration between academics in South Korea and Germany that assesses the factors shaping world-class universities as institutional social systems as well as national cultural treasures. The work explores in detail how WCUs have moved to a central position in policy circles, and how these often ambitious government policies on WCUs have been interpreted and adopted by university administrators and individual professors. The authors provide a wealth of empirical data on universities, both world-class and aiming for WCU status, in a range of polities and continents. They compare strategies for developing WCUs in countries of the East and the West, both developing and developed. Nations featured in the statistical purview include nine countries (Germany, France, Japan, South Korea, China, Taiwan, Malaysia, Singapore and Hong Kong SAR). The volume goes further than merely taking a snapshot of the current situation, offering detailed and considered strategies and rationales for institutionalizing and developing WCUs, particularly in Asian countries where Confucian cultural influences accord education the highest priority.

This volume delivers a cutting-edge analysis on vernacular globalization, or how local forces mediate global trends. It delves into the vital facets of the quest for global competitiveness, including: Global university rankings World-class universities University mergers Quality assurance Cross-border higher education International education hubs. The authors situate their topics within current international scholarship and demonstrate the myriad avenues through which local actors in higher education may respond to global competition. They pose critical questions about the impact of global competition in an increasingly hierarchical higher education environment, interrogating the potential for social injustice that arises. By providing an alternative perspective to the descriptive, normative approach that dominates the scholarship on global competition in higher education, the chapters in this volume open a fresh and invaluable dialogue in this arena. This is the 168th volume of the Jossey-Bass quarterly report series New Directions for Higher Education. Addressed to presidents, vice presidents, deans, and other higher education decision makers on all kinds of campuses, it provides timely information and authoritative advice about major issues and administrative problems confronting every institution.

The pursuit to construct “world-class” universities is an ongoing global obsession across the world, which lays emphasis on the development of competitive higher education and research systems as core national economic approach. The portrayal “world-class” is more contextual rather than absolute, the expression “world-class university” has an irrefutable cachet. There is no solo, clear-cut definition of what organises a world-class university (WCU), but there are few common attributes that majority of the experts point towards. The three attributes stated by Philip Altbach and Jamil Salmi that focus on a high concentration of talent, abundant resources and favourable governance have been widely discussed in writings and practice. Both in developing and developed countries, policymakers and higher education leaders are attempting to identify and outline their desires and plans aimed at achieving global ranking for their university/universities. Despite condemnation of the methodology, the choice of indicators and weightings, and the reliability and quality of data used for comparing performance, the obsession for constructing world-class universities has increased over the period of time. But how much do we really discern or comprehend regarding the ranking systems? What do the rankings really measure? Do rankings measure the quality and help in attaining the broad assignment of higher education? Does the competition as outcome of ranking raise standards? Is the ranking system an apposite instrument to frame higher education policies? This edited volume tries to look at the concept of world-class universities in milieu of different countries of the world and explore their experiences either in existing WCUs or constructing WCU or attempting to create WCU. The country-based chapters show differentiated paths of achievements and their approach towards the concept of WCU.

This open access book focuses on the dimensions of the discourse of 'The World Class University', its alleged characteristics, and its policy expressions. It offers a broad overview of the historical background and current trajectory of the world-class-university construct. It also deepens the theoretical discussion, and points a way forward out of present impasses resulting from the pervasive use and abuse of the notion of "world-class" and related terms in the discourse of quality assessment. The book includes approaches and results from fields of inquiry not otherwise prominent in Higher Education studies, including philosophy and media studies, as well as sociology, anthropology, educational theory. The growing impact of global rankings and their strategic use in the restructuring of higher education systems to increase global competitiveness has led to a ‘reputation race’ and the emergence of the global discourse of world class universities. The discourse of world class universities has rapid uptake in East Asian countries, with China recently refining its strategy. This book provides insights into this process and its future development.

World-class universities, commonly recognized as global research universities or flagship universities, are cornerstone institutions embedded in any academic system and play an important role in developing a nation’s competitiveness in the global knowledge economy. The development of world-class universities is high on the policy agenda of various stakeholders across the globe. In the past few years, an increasing number of nations, regions and higher education institutions in both developed and developing countries have joined the same race for academic excellence and have adopted a range of development strategies and implemented various reforms. From a comparative perspective, How World-Class Universities Affect Global Higher Education intends to provide an in-depth picture of excellence initiatives and relevant policies adopted in various nations and regions, and to reflect opportunities and challenges of developing excellence.

"The concept of world-class universities (WCU) has increasingly gained popularity in the past two decades around the world. WCU are regarded as cornerstone institutions of any academic system and imperative to develop a nation’s competitiveness in the global knowledge economy. The development of such universities is high on the policy agenda of various stakeholders worldwide, in both developed and developing countries and regions, and at both national and institutional levels, to promote their global competitiveness.Visibility and performance are among the most watched concepts in relation to develop WCUs, but remain complicated in nature and with no agreed upon definitions. Existing literature have focused on how to raise universities’ prestige, status, impact and rankings in the global and regional arena on the one hand, and how to enhance universities’ quality, efficiency, effectiveness and academic output on the other. However, whether visibility is a legitimate indicator of performance, or vice versa, is yet to be answered.Matching Visibility and Performance: A Standing Challenge for World-Class Universities provides insights of developing academic excellence from global, national and institutional perspectives, and intends to stimulate discussion on how universities can be ‘globally visible and locally engaged’ and how visibility and performance can be integrated and balanced in practice."

This volume sheds light on world-class universities’ challenges, opportunities, roles and strategies in response to the changing landscape of higher education and our society as a whole.

Within higher education, world-class universities are commonly regarded as elite research universities and play a critical role in developing a nation’s competitiveness in the global knowledge economy. An increasing number of countries, regions and higher education institutions in different parts of the world have joined the same battle for academic excellence. While emerging countries and their universities make every effort to enhance their capacity and boost their research performance, the academic superpowers endeavour to maintain - if not further improve- their global positions. “Building World-Class Universities: Different Approaches to a Shared Goal” intends to provide an in-depth picture of different approaches in pursuit of the shared goal of developing academic excellence, and to reflect the current trends in this field. Divided into three parts, the book covers: • building world-class universities from a national/regional perspective, • managing world-class universities from an institutional perspective, and • measuring world-class universities from a ranking/indicator perspective. This book not only represents a contribution to the ongoing discussion on the topic of building world-class universities, but can be seen as a continuation of the previous three volumes on this topic - “World-Class Universities and Ranking: Aiming beyond Status”, “The World-Class University as Part of a New Higher Education Paradigm: From Institutional Qualities to Systemic Excellence”, and “Paths to a World-Class University: Lessons from Practices and Experiences”. All four books will be useful readings for students and academics in higher education generally, in addition to policy makers and informed practioners.d practitioners