Rankings And Global Knowledge Governance

Higher education and innovation policies are today seen as central elements in national economic competitiveness, increasingly measured by global rankings. The book analyses the evolution of indicator-based global knowledge governance, where various national attributes have been evaluated under international comparative assessment. Reflecting this general trend, the Shanghai ranking, first published in 2003, has pressured governments and universities all over the world to improve their performance in global competition. More recently, as global rankings have met criticism for their methodology and scope, measurements of various sizes and shapes have proliferated: some celebrating novel methodological solutions, others breaking new conceptual grounds. This book takes a fresh look at developments in the field of knowledge governance by showing how emerging indicators, innovation indexes and subnational comparisons are woven into the existing fabric of measurements that govern our ideas of higher education, innovation and competitiveness. This book argues that while rankings are becoming more numerous and fragmented, the new knowledge products, nevertheless, tend to reproduce ideas and practices existing in the field of global measurement.

This book introduces the concept of ‘knowledge alchemy’ to capture the generic process of transforming mundane practices and policies of governance into competitive ones following imagined global gold standards. Using examples from North America, Europe and Asia, it explores how knowledge alchemy increasingly informs national and institutional policies and practices on economic performance, higher education, research and innovation. The book examines how governments around the world have embraced global models of world-class university, human capital and talent competition as essential in ensuring national competitiveness. Through its analysis, the book shows how this strongly future-oriented and anticipatory knowledge governance is steered by a surge of global classifications, rankings and indicators, resulting in numerous comparisons of various domains that today form more constraining global policy scripts.

Indicators and rankings are widely used by governments and organisations to assess the effectiveness, efficiency, and success of policy decisions. This book evaluates the creation of indicators, their impact on policy decisions, and the implications of their use.

Governing Universities Globally provides a comprehensive account of higher education in the world today and successfully demonstrates how the study of universities now needs to acknowledge to the global environment. Andrew Steven Gunn, Political Studies Roger King examines how universities, as increasingly autonomous organizations, are subject to forms of global governance that rely particularly on private and peer-processes rather than legal command and compliance. The book explores the growing influence of global regulatory governance governmental and private on universities and national higher education systems. It considers processes of purposeful standardization, normative internalization and markets as solutions for coordination and collective action problems, as well as hierarchical command. A range of university systems, world models and organizations, particularly those associated with Europe and the OECD are examined, with particular emphasis on the growth of national and global league tables and similar rankings of higher education institutions as a form of regulation. Governance globally is found to operate through steerage , networks, deliberation and communities of the knowledgeable and the expert. The comprehensive coverage of global university governance includes conceptual, theoretical and empirical analyses that will be invaluable to higher education researchers and students, and to public policy academics, students and practitioners. Global governance analysts, global business and management postgraduates, as well as regulation theorists and practitioners will also find this book to be of great interest.

"This book examines the core changes in the nature, status, and significance of the university over the last century. Having grown in numbers, reach, and scope, the university has seen sweeping expansion and has become central in a contemporary global society built on liberal and neoliberal institutions. David Frank and John Meyer begin by describing the university's expansion, focusing especially on global diffusion. They then examine the transformation of university knowledge, illustrating the ways in which standardized and scientific knowledge now reaches into more sectors of everyday life. This leads them to discuss the porous interface between the university and society. They suggest that there are now essentially no social problems that the university should not responsibly address. The result is a society dependent on credentials and cultural content provided by the university, and in the final chapter of the book, the authors reflect on what it means to exist in this "knowledge society""--

Gathering unique and thoughtful contributions from leading international scholars, this timely Research Handbook offers diverse perspectives on university rankings twenty years after the first global rankings emerged. It presents an in-depth analysis that reflects the current state of research on rankings, their influence and impact.

This book introduces the concept of ‘knowledge alchemy’ to capture the generic process of transforming mundane practices and policies of governance into competitive ones following imagined global gold standards. Using examples from North America, Europe and Asia, it explores how knowledge alchemy increasingly informs national and institutional policies and practices on economic performance, higher education, research and innovation. The book examines how governments around the world have embraced global models of world-class university, human capital and talent competition as essential in ensuring national competitiveness. Through its analysis, the book shows how this strongly future-oriented and anticipatory knowledge governance is steered by a surge of global classifications, rankings and indicators, resulting in numerous comparisons of various domains that today form more constraining global policy scripts.