The new World Bank report - The Challenge of Establishing World-Class Universities - says that countries rushing to build elite international universities must weigh their decision within the context of their wider economic development plans for the future and whether they can afford the huge price of building and running such institutions with short-changing the rest of the country’s education system.
“Even in a global knowledge economy where all industrial and developing countries are competing for a bigger slice of the economic pie, the hype surrounding world-class institutions far exceeds the education needs and research potential of many of these same countries, especially at this time of global economic crisis,” says Jamil Salmi, author of the new report and the World Bank’s Tertiary Education Coordinator. “There is no universal recipe or magic formula for “making” a world-class university but nonetheless one cardinal rule seems to be that that money alone will not buy you a coveted spot on the annual list of the world’s elite institutions.”
Salmi notes that while Brazil is the world’s 10th largest economy and sixth largest car producer and is home to world-class companies such as Embraer and Aracruz Celulose, there is no Brazilian university among the 100 top-ranked universities in the world. Similarly, in France and Germany, which have two of the strongest and most sophisticated global economies and historically excellent universities, French and German universities do not appear high in the recent rankings. In 2003, when the first SJTU ranking was published, the best French university (the University of Paris VI) was ranked 66th, and the first German university (the University of Munich) was ranked 49th. In 2008, the best French and German universities were placed 42nd and 55th, respectively.
What does it take to be world-class?
The new Bank report says three factors distinguish elite international universities from their competitors, namely: a high concentration of talented teachers and students; significant budgets; and strategic vision and leadership.
Talented teachers and students - in most cases, world-class universities have students and faculty who are not exclusively from the country where the university operates. This enables them to attract the most talented people, no matter where they come from, and open themselves to new ideas and approaches. Harvard University, for instance, has a student population that is 19 percent international; Stanford University has 21 percent; and Columbia University, 23 percent. At the University of Cambridge, 18 percent of the students are from outside the U.K. or European Union (EU) countries. The U.S. universities ranked at the top of the global surveys also show sizable proportions of foreign academic staff.
The proportion of international faculty at Harvard University, including medical academic staff, is approximately 30 percent. Similarly, the proportion of foreign academics at the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge is 36 and 33 percent, respectively. By contrast, only 7 percent of all researchers in France are foreign academics. Unquestionably, the world’s best universities enroll and employ large numbers of foreign students and faculty in their search for the most talented.
In this respect, the fact that world-class universities succeed in mobilizing a broadly diverse national and international academic staff is likely to maximize these institutions’ knowledge-networking capacity.
Significant budgets - the report notes that building and operating world-class universities can cost millions of dollars. For example, in late 2007, Saudi Arabia announced plans for a new $ US 3 billion graduate research university; Pakistan plans to spend US$ 750 million for each of its new Universities of Engineering, Science, and Technology it will build over the next few years; and The School of Medicine established by Cornell University in Qatar in 2002 cost US$ 750 million.
World class universities have four main sources of financing: government budget funding for operational expenditures and research, contract research from public organizations and private firms, the financial returns generated by endowments and gifts, and tuition fees.
In Western Europe, public funding is by far the principal source of finance for teaching and research. In Asia, the National University of Singapore, which became a private corporation in 2006, has been the most successful institution in terms of substantial endowment funding, with a current portfolio of US$774 million through effective fund-raising. The United States and (to a lesser extent) Japan have thriving private research universities.
The sound financial base of the top U.S. universities is the result of two factors: 1) large endowments, which provide budget security, comfort, and the ability to focus on medium- and long-term institutional priorities; and 2) the success of their faculty in competing for government research funding. On average, per student, the richest U.S. private universities receive more than US$40,000 in endowment income every year, compared with a mere US$1,000 for Canadian universities. Unlike many universities in Europe, these U.S. Universities are not at the short-term mercy of government funding
In addition, at least two-thirds of the research funding captured by the top U.S. research universities comes from public sources, such a government research funding. The top-ranking Canadian universities in international league tables are also the top universities in research income. The availability of abundant resources creates a virtuous circle that allows the concerned institutions to attract even more top professors and researchers, as is often the case among elite universities in the United States.
Strategic vision and leadership - the World Bank report says that world class universities thrive in an environment that fosters competitiveness, unrestrained scientific inquiry, critical thinking, innovation, and creativity. Moreover, institutions that have complete autonomy are also more agile because they are not bound by cumbersome bureaucracies and externally imposed standards, even in light of the legitimate accountability mechanisms that do bind them. As a result, they can manage their resources efficiently and quickly respond to the demands of a rapidly changing global market.
Significantly, however, this level of autonomy is not enough to establish world-class status without other vital strategic leadership and governance features.
“To make the grade, you also need inspiring and persistent leaders, a strong strategic vision of where the institution is going, a philosophy of success and excellence, and a culture of constant reflection, organizational learning, and change,” says the World Bank’s Jamil Salmi.“On top of that, you can’t be in a hurry either. The truth of the matter is that not every nation needs comprehensive world-class universities, at least not while more fundamental tertiary education needs are not being met.”
Salmi argues that many countries would be better off if they focused initially on developing the best national universities possible, modeled perhaps on some of the original US land-grant universities or the polytechnic universities of Germany and Canada. Such institutions he says would emphasize the diverse learning and training needs of the domestic student population and economy. By concentrating efforts on the local community and economy, Salmi says, such institutions could lead to more effective and sustainable development than broader world-class aspirations.
Separately, the World Bank says it was doubling its education financing this year in low- and middle-income countries to $4.09 billion to help poor countries battle threats to their education services during the global economic crisis.
