The World-Class University: In Search of Excellence

       

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    In the context of globalization, the emerged need in establishing world-class universities reflect the national policies of competitiveness increase in the knowledge economy era. Consequently, every ambitious country sets a goal to establish a world-class university in order to create a critical mass of talented students and faculty members who will be able to foster socio-economic and industrial-innovative development of the country. World-class universities also can be considered as the promoters of country’s prestige and status on the global level. However, despite the fact that the concept is commonly used in many research papers and articles, there is no clear and explicit definition of the nature of world-class universities, which provokes debates regarding of what it means to be a world-class institution (Altbach, 2004).

            According to Salmi (2009) there are three main components of world-class institution, such as concentration of talents (local and international students, faculty and researchers), sufficient funding (public and private budgets), and favorable governance (autonomy and academic freedom). Those three elements like important screws of a giant mechanism; they are interconnected and all together can embody the idea of world-class university.

            World-class university is a cherished dream of many countries all over the world. Some of them are trying to upgrade existing institutions, others merge universities in order to create a strong comprehensive institution, yet others decide to establish a world-class university from the scratch. In the case of China, the government introduced two main initiatives in upgrading existing universities to the “world-class” level. Project 985 and Project 211 aimed to provide Chinese society with high quality education and research and promote the prestige of the country on international higher education arena. As the result of financial support and favorable governance, 9 Chinese universities are became the leading institutions in the country with high qualified faculty, excellence in research and internationally recognized status. One of them, Tsinghua University is the most internationalized university in China, which takes leading positions in Chinese and global university rankings and accumulates talents from all  over the world (Yang, 2011).

            Meanwhile, the European countries are more focusing on institutional merger, as the possibility to create a strong and comprehensive university. Merger is one of the ways of establishing world-class universities, as it gives the opportunity to unite leading profile institutions and create a new university which possesses strengths of previous institutions, and able to provide high level professional education and excellent research. The costs are also insufficiently high, which makes this approach more favorable for governmental budgets. However, the main weakness can be considered, as the class of institutional cultures and disorganization at the beginning stage. Thus, it seems to be crucial to ensure the internal coherence of newly emerged institution. Aalto University is a Finish initiative to create a world-class university resulted from the merger of Helsinki School of Economics, University of Art and Design Helsinki and Helsinki University of Technology. This institution aims to accumulate the knowledge and experience of leading profile universities and bring radical changes to the Finish system of higher education, consequently, facilitate the process of educational reform and promote finish education on the global arena (Cremonini, Westerheijden, Benneworth, & Dauncey, 2014) 

            Alternative way, which is chosen by many developing countries, is to establish a world-class university from the scratch. It is probably the most expansive approach, but the same time the most convenient from the reformation point of view. Nazarbayev University is an excellent example of governmental initiative to create a new and unique university for Kazakhstani higher education system, which aims to become a world-class institution and facilitate the process of socio-economic development of the country (Abazov, 2011). Nazarbayev University is established as the benchmark, which aims to achieve excellence in research and concentrate knowledge and experience, which then can be transferred to the mainstream higher education institutions in Kazakhstan. As the result, the possible “domino effect” is highly emphasized by institutional and governmental authorities.     

            So far, it is hard to evaluate the necessity and outcomes of the world-class universities, due to the relative novelty and differences in national contexts. However, it is vital to assess the value of those institutions for overall education system development, as the main raison d’être of world-class universities can be considered as being the agents of educational reforms and facilitators of overall socio-economic and innovative-industrial development of the country. In this regard, the question, which is commonly raised both by opponents and proponents of the “world-class” concept - “What is the real added value of world-class universities? Whether they are pursuing their own institutional benefits or able to produce greater public benefits?” remains unanswered.  

References

Abazov, R. (2011, April 13). Kazakhstan Takes Universities Global (13 April 2011). Central     Asia-Caucasus Institute Analyst. Retrieved May 01, 2015 from <http://cacianalyst.org/?q=node/5534>.

Altbach, P. (2004). Costs and benefits of world-class universities. Academe, 90(1), 20-23. 

Cremonini, L., Westerheijden, D. F., Benneworth, P., & Dauncey, H. (2014). In the Shadow of Celebrity? World-Class University Policies and Public Value in Higher Education. Higher education policy, 27(3), 341-361.

Salmi, J. (2009). The challenge of establishing world-class universities. Washington: World Bank Publications.

Yang, R. (2011). Advanced global strategy in China: The case of Tsinghua. In S. Marginson, S. Kaur,

& E. Sawir (Eds.), Higher education in the Asia-Pacific: Strategic responses to globalization (pp. 

143-159). Dordrecht: Springer.