Abstract
The concept of “world-class university” has been there for some time, and everyone wants a world-class university, and no country feels it can do without one. This battle to develop world-class universities lies not only in the gained status but also in the symbolic role of such universities. Universities exist mainly for research and dissemination of knowledge, which have become critical drivers of economic growth. For this reason, world-class research universities are recognized as central institutions in the 21st century economies. This recognition comes with pressure for universities to rethink their research activities and with the need to raise their research status to that of internationally accepted world-class universities. However, in order to attain the world-class research status, there is a need to sustain the efforts being put in place at both national and university levels. This study analyzed university data over nine years, from 2008 to 2016. It examined how Nanjing Agricultural University has strived to sustain its efforts towards attaining world-class research status. The results reveal that consistency and sustainability have resulted in excellence in research and increased research production. The conclusion is that the sustainability of the efforts significantly increases research production and excellence.
Highlights
Sustainability of universities has not been adequately addressed, especially within the domains of strategic perspectives (Hussain et al, 2019)
Studies focusing on actual sustainability of policies at national and institutional levels are rare, as most focus on how to create world-class universities and how to deal with challenges facing the creation of world-class universities (Tierney, 2014)
According to the results of the 4th National First-level Discipline Evaluation announced by the Ministry of Education in December 2017, seven academic disciplines offered at Nanjing Agricultural University (NAU) were graded in the A category, ranking NAU 11th among Chinese universities nationwide
Summary
Sustainability of universities has not been adequately addressed, especially within the domains of strategic perspectives (Hussain et al, 2019). This complex problem of university sustainability implies a big challenge for countries and educators to implement important strategies regarding developing world-class research universities This study endeavours to fill this void by gathering a unique dataset that provides detailed information on research support and outcomes in Nanjing Agricultural University, one of the most research-intensive higher education institutions in China and which is funded and supervised by China‟s Ministry of Education. In addition to our unique data and research context, this study contributes to the literature on research funding and production in a number of important ways
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
