World-Class Universities
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Preface
World-Class Universities Jeroen Huisman Higher Education Policy (2008) 21, 1–4. doi:10.1057/palgrave.hep.8300180
The central theme of this issue of Higher Education Policy — world-class universities — is high on the agenda of various stakeholders across the globe (see also Altbach and Bala´n, 2007). Many national governments develop policies to stimulate the emergence or strengthening of such universities. The qualification ‘world-class’ is quite often used, but references to top research or elite universities, or as many of the contributors to this special issue do: the global research university, are made as well. The drivers for such policies are rather common across the countries. Supporting or developing a world-class university — or if the size of the system and the governmental budgets allow for this — several world-class universities, is considered by many to be a necessary and unavoidable step to be able to compete at a global level. The theme of world-class and top universities is, however, not without ambiguities. For sure, it is understood that universities want to perform at the highest levels and that some want to be the best in the world. Analogous to sports, one convincingly could argue that if a person or team is able to beat its competitors in a global competition, indeed that person or team — for the time being, for future challenges await — can be considered world-class. The comparison with higher education is a bit awkward, for at least two reasons. First, universities do not compete in a similar way. That is, there is no real oneto-one combat or league in which universities compete against each other, leaving exceptions such as students battling in University Challenge aside. Terms like ‘beating’, ‘victory’ and ‘defeat’ are not part of the higher education vocabulary yet. If there is something like a competition, it is at most virtual: universities try to perform well in certain areas and benchmark their performance against other universities. Rankings and league tables are good examples of such a form of competition, but even in these competitions it would be too far-fetched to maintain that university X has beaten university Y in a global competition. Second, and more importantly, most often the rules for using the terms ‘world-class’, ‘top’ or ‘elite’ are unclear. In sports, regulations set by international associations define and determine how one can reach the status of world champion. But in the field of higher education self-acclaimed top quality seems to be the name of the game. Such developments might bring the idea of world-class in jeopardy. One reason for this is straightforward: logic forbids that so many universities
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can be considered world-class. A second reason is that higher education institutions quite often neglect to set out in what respect they consider themselves world-class, excellent or leading, let alone that they deliver any proof of their position. One of the statements I found on a university website runs like: ‘we are proud of our reputation o
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