World Class Universities and the Rest

2017 ◽  
pp. 109-128 ◽  
Author(s):  
David A. Turner
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Critical Mass ◽  
University Rankings ◽  
Research Activity ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Academic Fields ◽  
World Class ◽  
World Class Universities ◽  
Centres Of Excellence

University rankings and the concept of “World Class Universities” have captured the imagination of academics and policy makers, and they are now both firmly established as part of the higher education scene. The rankings have been criticised on many grounds: the arbitrary nature of the measures used, the arbitrariness of the methodologies used and the need of rankings to respond to other imperatives. This chapter looks at what function rankings have in legitimising funding regimes that focus investment in “centres of excellence”, and what this implies for reduced / worse funding of other institutions. This central philosophy of focusing investment where there is a critical mass of research activity has dramatic implications for the relationships between universities and their communities. These pressures will be experienced differently in different academic fields. This chapter examines the ramifications of adopting a one-size-fits-all policy to diverse disciplines with different requirements.

The Future of Indian Universities

2018 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Education System ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
University Rankings ◽  
Higher Education System ◽  
World University Rankings ◽  
The Future ◽  
Indian Higher Education ◽  
World Class ◽  
World Class Universities

The Indian higher education system commanded awe and respect in the ancient world. Important seats of learning like Nalanda and Takshashila attracted the best students and academics from across the globe. Unfortunately, over a period of time, our higher education system lost its global competitiveness. This is exemplified by the fact that not many Indian higher education institutions feature in the annual world university rankings like the Times Higher Education World University Rankings or the QS World University Rankings. At the same time, India’s aspirations to establish world-class universities have never been greater. The book is a culmination of a range of ideas and perspectives that will shape India’s aspirations of building world-class universities through comparative and international dimensions. It is a recognition that the future of Indian universities and their ability to seek global excellence will depend on three critical paradigms: first is the need for creating a vision for higher education that will focus on research and knowledge creation, institutional excellence, and global benchmarking as the indicators for standard-setting; second, the need for pursuing substantial reforms relating to policy, regulation, and governance of higher education; and third is the need for investigating a paradigmatic shift for promoting interdisciplinarity in higher education with a stronger and deeper focus on the pedagogy of teaching and learning in different fields of inquiry. Through a series of contributions from noted academics and scholars from India and around the world, this book discusses these three strings of thought, to create higher education opportunities that will enable the future generations of students to pursue world-class education in world-class universities in India.

scholarly journals Building World Class Universities in Yemen: Exploring Yemeni Higher Education Expert’s Perceptions and Thoughts

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (2S9) ◽  
pp. 455-460
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Qualitative Method ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
The Past ◽  
Economic Strategies ◽  
National Economic ◽  
Relevant Field ◽  
World Class ◽  
Key Aspects ◽  
World Class Universities

World Class Universities (WCU) have substantially grown in popularity over the past couple of decades. These entities have incentivized the use of research as a tool for economic growth, as the emphasis on education and research development has led the governments to include them as key aspects for their national economic strategies. However, in a country like Yemen, there is a gap in research and development when it comes to the enhancement of the education system and university academia. Thus, this paper aims to investigate the requirements, initiatives and suitable strategic approaches that are required in order to create WCUs in Yemen. This is done by collecting and assessing the perceptions of Yemeni higher education experts. In order to achieve this goal, a qualitative method has been utilized for the research methodology, with the data being collected using deep interview systems. The selected population for the interview are five experts in the relevant field. The results of the study indicate that there are several requirements, initiatives and strategic approaches that can be executed in order for a WCU to be created in Yemen. Consequently, the expectation is for the findings of this research to provide a basis and bedrock for further initiative and proposals that can be used to guide policy makers in Yemen on developing the higher education institutes to a level which can compete with other countries around the world.

scholarly journals Top Universities or Top Higher Education Systems?

2014 ◽  
pp. 7-8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benoit Millot
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
University Rankings ◽  
Education Systems ◽  
Higher Education Systems ◽  
World Class ◽  
International University ◽  
World Class Universities

In reaction to the focus of international university rankings on a tiny cluster of “world class universities”, attempts are being made to rank national higher education systems.  This paper compares the results of the U21 system ranking with those of major university rankings, reviews the reasons for their similarities. It argues that system rankings are critical and suggests how to enhance their usefulness

scholarly journals WORLD-CLASS UNIVERSITIES COMO CONCEITO EM DISPUTA NA EDUCAÇÃO SUPERIOR

2020 ◽  
Vol 45 (3) ◽  
pp. 582-598
Author(s):  
José Vieira de Sousa
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
University Rankings ◽  
World University Rankings ◽  
World Class ◽  
Academic Ranking ◽  
World Class Universities

O artigo tem como objetivo analisar o conceito de world-class universities como objeto de disputa no competitivo campo da educação superior, partindo da premissa que no mundo globalizado sua origem e consolidação ocorrem tomando como referência básica padrões internacionais de qualidade. De natureza teórica, o trabalho problematiza a educação superior na economia do conhecimento, de maneira articulada à exploração de dados produzido pelos dois principais rankings que classificam essas universidades – Academic Ranking of World Universities e Times Higher Education World University Rankings – publicados, respectivamente, nos anos de 2019 e 2020. Conclui-se que o conceito desse novo modelo de universidade considera critérios e indicadores globais de qualidade, mas também a ação das demais universidades que fazem parte do campo da educação superior.  

World-Class Universities in East Asian Countries

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Futao Huang
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
East Asian ◽  
University Rankings ◽  
Asian Countries ◽  
Quality Of Teaching ◽  
Global University ◽  
World Class ◽  
Fierce Competition ◽  
World Class Universities

Since the start of the 21st century, the building of world-class universities has been viewed as an important and relevant means to enhance the quality of teaching and research, governance and management arrangements, and further internationalization of higher education in a growing number of countries. It is increasingly conceived as a top priority and the primary foundation for restructuring and reforming various higher education systems, especially in several East Asian countries and societies. Through implementing top-down national strategies featuring a concentration of resources in selected institutions, several East Asian countries, and especially China, have successfully established research-oriented universities and driven the rise of these universities in global university rankings. Despite numerous challenges, in the context of increased international competition in higher education worldwide, development initiatives that seek to form world-class universities are becoming more common, and this is particularly evident in the fierce competition between Asian countries.

scholarly journals Welcome to the World Class University: Introduction

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
Sharon Rider ◽  
Michael A. Peters ◽  
Mats Hyvönen ◽  
Tina Besley
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Higher Education Policy ◽  
University Rankings ◽  
University Teachers ◽  
World University Rankings ◽  
Teachers And Students ◽  
Global University ◽  
World Class ◽  
Object Of Study ◽  
World Class Universities

AbstractThe notion of World Class Universities, and the use of rankings in general, has been an object of study for decades. Perhaps the first major critical work was Ellen Hazelkorn’s Rankings and the reshaping of higher education: The battle for world-class excellence (2011). Just as the influence of rankings shows no sign of abating, neither does the impetus to provide practical proposals for how to use them to advantage, or, alternatively, to examine the sources and effects of the practices involved. Recent interventions belonging to the first category are Downing and Ganotice’s World university rankings and the future of higher education (2017), while Stack’s Global university rankings and the mediatization of higher education (2016) and Hazelkorn’s Global rankings and the geopolitics of higher education: Understanding the influence and impact of rankingson higher education, policyand society (2016) are notable examples of the latter. The essays presented in the present volume are intended to contribute to our understanding of the phenomenon, its causes and consequences by filling three functions: (i) to provide an updated analysis of current trends in rankings and an examination of recent data regarding World Class University (WCU) initiatives relevant to the form and content of higher education; (ii) to study these especially with an eye to particular ramifications for work on the shop floor, that is to say, for university teachers and students; (iii) to investigate possible future courses and alternative trajectories.

The Kothari Saga (1965–85)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
R.V. Vaidyanatha Ayyar
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Gross Domestic Product ◽  
Central Government ◽  
National Policy ◽  
Constitutional Amendment ◽  
Educational Discourse ◽  
Congress Party ◽  
World Class ◽  
World Class Universities ◽  
National Policy On Education

This chapter outlines the exceptional composition of the landmark Kothari Commission, and its blend of idealism and realism. It offers a succinct account of the recommendations of the Kothari Commission, and the ferocious opposition to its recommendations regarding elementary and higher education, language policy, and the establishment of world class universities. It presents a candid critique of its recommendation that has become a hardy perennial of Indian educational discourse, namely that Government allocate at least 6 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to education. It gives a crisp account of Independent India’s first National Policy on Education (1968). It also outlines the Constitutional Amendment of 1978 which made education a ‘concurrent subject’, and the educational initiatives of the short lived Janata Government (1976–8), India’s first non-Congress Party Central Government. It also outlines the key role played by J.P Naik in the Kothari Commission and Janata Government and evolution of his thinking.

World class universities and international student mobility: Repositioning strategies in the Asian Tigers

2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 295-317
Author(s):  
Anatoly V Oleksiyenko ◽  
Sheng-Ju Chan ◽  
Stephanie K Kim ◽  
William Yat Wai Lo ◽  
Keenan Daniel Manning
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
International Student ◽  
Student Mobility ◽  
Global Science ◽  
Major Cluster ◽  
Knowledge Economies ◽  
Asian Tigers ◽  
World Class ◽  
Local Students ◽  
World Class Universities

A major cluster of economic engines that have changed Asian higher education, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea, and Taiwan have all developed high-income societies as well as world-class universities which linked local “knowledge economies” to global science and created hubs for international collaborations and mobility. However, there has been limited analysis of interdependencies between the rise of world-class universities and changes in the flows of international talent. This paper elaborates on the concept of higher education internationalization that aims at enhancing geopolitical equity in global mobility and re-positioning local students for improved access to the world-class excellence. The paper compares key themes and patterns that define the Tiger societies’ unique positions in the field of global higher education.

scholarly journals Creating World-Class Universities in Japan: Policy and Initiatives

2008 ◽  
Vol 6 (5) ◽  
pp. 629-640 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jun Oba
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Education Reform ◽  
Basic Education ◽  
Higher Education Reform ◽  
Develop World ◽  
Funding Policy ◽  
Higher Education System ◽  
World Class ◽  
The Government ◽  
World Class Universities

For a very long time the Japanese government concentrated its higher education investment on a handful of national institutions, until the policy came to be called into question in the late 1980s in the face of globalisation and other factors. Higher education reform was significantly accelerated in the 1990s: the government has continuously deregulated the higher education system including the incorporation of national universities, and has brought more and more competition through diverse competitive funding schemes. Some policies – not only higher education policies but also science and technology ones – were explicitly designed to develop ‘world-class’ education and research centres, such as the 21st COE programme. This article suggests that although a funding policy based on competition, with a strict evaluation, seems to be a move in the right direction, a right balance of budget allocation between competitive funds and basic education-research funds should be sought. Furthermore, the programmes of the government have to be offered in a more consistent manner, and more concerted and integrated efforts will be required, to address the critical problem of building world-class universities.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document