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Report considers success secrets of world-class universities A new report attempts to establish what makes a university world-class. The World Bank report, The Challenge of Establishing World-Class Universities, notes that it is increasingly important for universities to be globally competitive. In the past, elite universities were established principally by reputation -- a subjective measure that saw America's Ivy League universities, Britain's Oxbridge and Japan's Tokyo University regarded as the world's flagship tertiary institutions. These days, league tables, as well as the universities themselves, proliferate. The Times Higher Education Supplement (THES) and Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU) rankings are the ones with most clout. While the THES tables are based more on the subjective criteria of international reputation and the SJTU on more objective measures of academic performance, their results are not dissimilar. The Ivy League, Oxbridge and Tokyo still come top, followed by other American, British and Western European institutions. A general rule of thumb for a world-class university is that it produces well-qualified graduates who are in high demand on the labour market, the report says. Some of the main factors to achieve this are:
The top universities are highly selective and have a high percentage of international students and faculty. Universities in most countries rely on a combination of government funding, contract research from public organisations and private firms, tuition fees and endowments and gifts. In Western Europe public funding is still the main source of income and is frequently restrictive. The endowment funding of United States and Japanese private universities enables them to plan effectively over the longer term and to attract research funds and top faculty. University governance also appears to have a significant effect on results. The best universities are independently managed, leaving them 'scope for flexibility, inspiring leadership, strategic vision, a philosophy of excellence, innovation, creativity and critical thinking'. In order to create a flagship university, talent, resources and governance must come together. In 2005, the Economist called the United States tertiary education system the best in the world, and attributed this to its relative independence from the state, its competitive nature and its ability to make academic work relevant to society. By contrast, French and German universities do not rank highly in the rankings because they are not selective nor competitive, and their governance is bureaucratic, the report indicates. One of the biggest success stories of the last decade has been the Indian Iinstitutes of Technology (IITs), which are publicly funded but enjoy academic and managerial freedom. The IITs are more selective than the Ivy League, and offer relevant, high-quality degree programmes in engineering and technology. To purchase the report visit this web page, or download it here as a PDF document. |
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