Building World-Class Universities: Some Insights & Predictions

Abstract

Innovations in higher education model are finding importance than ever before due to enhanced higher education institutions and the advancement in technology adopted mass education opportunities. After privatization of higher education, there is an enhanced competition between universities to attract students globally. Universities are competing with each other in terms of their physical and intellectual assets. It is postulated that the six essential assets to be developed by a university based on our predictive analysis for the growth and prosper as world-class university are (1) Physical infrastructure, (2) Digital infrastructure, (3) Innovative academic & training Infrastructure for confidence building, (4) Intellectual property infrastructure, (5) Emotional infrastructure, and (6) Networked infrastructure. In this paper, we have determined the primary focus of these infrastructures along with their essential objectives in detail. We have also discussed the various generic strategies to be followed to develop such infrastructures along the lifecycle of the university including Survival, Sustainability, Differentiation, and Growth & prosperity are analysed. The necessary and sufficient conditions of developing such infrastructures using all the above strategies towards building World-class universities are identified. It is estimated that Physical, Digital, and Innovative Academic infrastructures are necessary conditions and Intellectual Property, Emotional, and Network infrastructures are sufficient conditions respectively.