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Creating world-class universities: Implications for developing countries

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Abstract

Many countries are now creating world-class universities (WCUs) as essential parts of their higher education reform agendas, and as national goals. It is legitimate to ask whether every county that aspires to build a WCU can do so—especially developing countries. To answer this question, this paper provides a three-step framework. The first step in building a WCU is to understand its characteristics. The second is for the country to systematically assess whether it has the capacity to create a WCU by rationally appreciating the challenges it would face in creating one. Third, it must understand, given the challenges discovered in the second step, what to do to create a WCU. Considering this framework, only a few developing countries have the potential to foster a WCU. Thus it is difficult for many universities in developing countries to enter an existing market already occupied by well-developed education systems and universities.

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  1. Leadership, Policy, and Organizations, Peabody College, Vanderbilt University, 230 Appleton Place, Nashville, TN, 37203, USA

    Jeongwoo Lee

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Lee, J. Creating world-class universities: Implications for developing countries. Prospects 43, 233–249 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11125-013-9266-x

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