Complicit Reproductions in the Global South: Courting World Class Universities and Global Rankings

Jack T Lee,Rajani Naidoo

doi:10.1007/978-981-15-7598-3_6

Abstract

AbstractThe proliferation of global rankings has led to vigorous debates about the dominance of world-class universities and the encroaching institutional isomorphism in higher education. Specifically, the narrow metrics of rankings celebrate STEM research and institutional reputation at the expense of the humanist roots of higher education: teaching, self-cultivation, and community engagement. This critique on global rankings faces an equally vocal demand that a country must develop world-class universities in order to remain economically competitive in the global era – an instrumental logic that attracts devotees in both advanced economies as well as developing economies. Ironically, policymakers in both contexts simultaneously lament the prevalence of rankings and calibrate strategies to promote success in league tables. Although rankings attract scrutiny in both higher education policymaking and research, the implications of these metrics on higher education in the Global South receive little attention. The discourse is largely focused on top and mid ranking institutions, which are often located in the Global North. In the Global South, global rankings and the concept of world-class universities act through subtle yet powerful mechanisms to shape the contours of higher education. For many institutions and states in the Global South, the fervour is less about creating a world-class university and more about establishing links with well ranked universities (domestically and internationally). Therefore, while the explicit goal is not to build a world-class university, policymakers are nevertheless complicit in reproducing the hegemony of global rankings. This chapter will examine the activities in which global rankings exert tremendous pressure on the Global South: curriculum development, student mobility, faculty recruitment, research partnerships, and strategic planning. In mapping out the mechanisms of reproduction, the goal is to highlight the pervasive influence of global rankings and the complicity in reproduction rather than paint a binary division between the global and local dimensions of higher education.

Highlights

Over the last two decades, the discourse on world-class universities (WCUs) has permeated many domains of higher education as stakeholders attempt to define, interpret, and evaluate the apex of higher learning
While the media focused on the alarming drop in ranking and the public demanded the resignation of the vice-chancellor, this incident begs us to ask broader systemic questions: Why are policymakers setting unrealistic expectations of overnight success in league tables? How did narrow global metrics of the world- class university become a key performance indicators (KPIs) of senior leadership in a higher education system? Surely the performance of any university over 1 year cannot be accurately captured through its performance in rankings
These empirical examples from Malaysia and Kazakhstan illustrate the power of the WCU concept and the complicit reproduction of rankings as an instrument of governance

Summary

Introduction

Over the last two decades, the discourse on world-class universities (WCUs) has permeated many domains of higher education as stakeholders attempt to define, interpret, and evaluate the apex of higher learning. This discourse transcends institutional differences and cultural contexts remarkably well to capture both the imaginations and anxieties of policymakers and institutional leaders. Higher education researchers can hardly ignore the WCU discourse despite their own misgivings about elitist higher education and the methodology of quantifying excellence These contradictions between rhetoric and practice seldom appear in the literature on WCU, which focuses on methodological problems in ranking universities rather than the ubiquitous use of league tables to guide decision-making in planning and management.

Complicit Reproductions in the Global South

Discussion