“World Class” or The Curse of Comparison?

Can all the universities that claim to be “world-class” actually live up to the claim? If they could be, would that be desirable public policy? It could be that there are so many different meanings of “world-class” that the term in practical effect is an oxymoron: the definition of “world” is determ...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Canadian journal of higher education (1975) 2005-01, Vol.35 (3), p.27-55
Main Author: Lang, Daniel W.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Academic Achievement
Achievement Rating
Colleges & universities
Competition
Educational Quality
Higher Education
Peer Evaluation
Performance evaluation
Productivity
Public Policy
Quality of education
Ratings & rankings
Reputation
Reputations
School systems
Student Financial Aid
Universities
Citations: Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Can all the universities that claim to be “world-class” actually live up to the claim? If they could be, would that be desirable public policy? It could be that there are so many different meanings of “world-class” that the term in practical effect is an oxymoron: the definition of “world” is determined locally when conceptually it should be defined internationally. This paper discusses different kinds of institutional quality, how quality is formed and how it can be measured, particularly by comparison. It also discusses the subtle but fundamental differences between quality and reputation. The paper concludes with the suggestion that world-class comparisons of research quality and productivity are possible, but that any broader application to the “world-class” quality of universities will be at best futile and at worst misleading.
ISSN:0316-1218
2293-6602
DOI:10.47678/cjhe.v35i3.183513