Research Universities In China Research Articles

On the Shoulders of Giants? Global Science, Resource Asymmetries, and Repositioning of Research Universities in China and Russia

Chinese and Russian universities are increasingly drawn into center-periphery repositioning, as they compete for symbolic, financial, and intellectual resources locally and globally. However, their strategies on national and institutional linkages differ with regards to the individual scientist’s powers in knowledge production. As global hierarchies of knowledge productivity benchmark prestigious publications, and national industries seek access to innovative products in global research and development labs, globally connected talents become essential for elevating local research performance. This article examines the undercurrents of center-periphery repositioning in Russia and China by comparing their research and development funding and performance data, as well as contrasting their global standing with Brazil, India, South Africa, and G7 members. A method of comparative multilayered patterning of mixed data sets is used to reflect on center-periphery dilemmas facing the Chinese and Russian scientists.

Return Migration of the Highly Skilled in Higher Education Institutions: a Chinese University Case

AbstractThe war for ‘global talents’ becomes increasingly fierce worldwide with the thriving of knowledge‐based new economy. Many countries are implementing new initiatives to encourage their citizens trained overseas to return with their globalised work competencies. Although previous studies have identified various factors related to return migration, very few studies have focused on the return migration of academics, and more specifically, the role of the higher education institution (HEI) in the return migration process. Using both statistical analyses of micro‐data and in‐depth interviews, this study examines the HEI recruitment process through an extensive case study in a research university in China. We find that, for successful recruitment of overseas top talents, it is extremely important as to how university presents itself in the international stage of the global higher education markets. Meanwhile, we cannot underestimate the role of economic incentives. We also find that the role of networking is more subtle than what traditional migration theories would have predicted. Our findings provide important policy implications for practices regarding talent recruitment at the institutional level, particularly for those universities at the lower end of the global higher education hierarchy. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

An analysis of the issues in developing research universities in China

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to find out the problems in the contemporary development of Chinese research universities and think about relevant measures and policy for promotion.Design/methodology/approachAfter over 20 years practice, China has made quite significant achievements in developing research universities, yet there are still some issues that exist. Analyzing the issues and the effects of existing policies for construction and development of China's research universities, and looking back at practices guided by these polices, the study proposes new dimensions in the measures and policies, on the bases of the achievements that have been made.FindingsThis paper analyzes the current situation of China's research university development and reveals that the critical issues, such as faculty qualities, academic freedom, post‐graduate education, initiative research outcome, and internationalization, etc. must be highlighted and solved.Originality/valueTo further progress it is important to analyze the problems of developing research university development in the existing higher education system. The policy implication of this paper lies in that the results can be a reference for policy makers and the HEI administrations.

Academic Freedom and Emerging Research Universities

Ahmed C. Bawa Academic Freedom and Emerging Research Universities HIGHER EDUCATION HAS REEMERGED AS A KEY INGREDIENT IN THE developm ent strategies of emerging nations and economies, with unprecedented growth in its provision and participation rates. Worldwide there is a deliberate, planned shift toward its massification. Between 1960 and 2004, the number of participants in some form of higher education grew from about 13 million to about 132 million— that is, from 0.4 percent to about 2 percent of the world’s population, a five-fold growth in participation rate (Haddad, 2006). Even in sub-Saha­ ran Africa, where the participation rate of 18 to 24 year olds is no more than about 3.3 percent—and keeping in mind that the participation rates of the two larger systems, South Africa and Nigeria, are 16 percent and 10 percent respectively—the number of 18 to 24 year olds in higher education is growing at the rate of 8.7 percent per year (Morley, 2007). Higher education is a costly provision. Its development is spurred on by two primary conditions. The first is what is perceived to be an inextricable (and enviable) link between higher education and economic growth that has emerged in the global North and also in powerfully growing emerging economies such as South Korea and Brazil. The second condition is the undeniable increase in social (and hence political) pressure for access to higher education as democratic transformations take hold in many parts of the developing world. On social research Vol 76 : No 2 : Summer 2009 481 the one hand this is a political process—politicians responding to popu­ lar pressure. On the other it is a reflection of the link between upward social mobility and success in higher education. Massification—because of its cost—is a major source of rethinking about higher education. In particular, it has spurred on a debate about the cost of higher educa­ tion, how it should be paid for, and the extent to which it should be subsidized by the public purse. While massification is a powerful driving force for the transfor­ mation of higher education, research and research capacity building are always central to the discussion. In recent times this transforma­ tion has been increasingly directed and goal-driven as nations contem­ plate their entry into the global economy through their participation in the “knowledge economy.” Some nations contemplate the estab­ lishment of new research universities and others concentrate on how to grow and strengthen the research capacity of existing universities and institutes—the larger systems, such as in China, do both. We shall explore later in the paper the imagination that drives these discussions. As one might expect, there is considerable interest and ambition to develop universities based on the most successful research universi­ ties of recent times even though the prevailing conditions may be so vastly different. Explicit discussions are at an advanced stage about the establishment of US-style research universities in China, India, parts of the Middle East, Eastern Europe, and Africa. Having said this, there are many research or research-intensive universities outside of the global metropoles and in the developing world that compete strongly with the famous research universities in the global North. Universidade de Sâo Paulo, Brazil’s foremost university, for instance, produced about three times as many PhDs as did the University of California at Berkeley in 2003 (Schwartzman, 2007:144). Since research universities reside within local systems of higher education, it is important to pay attention to what is happening with these systems. They articulate with the other institutions in those systems through qualification structures and curricula. On the other hand, research universities are intricately linked with the global 482 social research research system. And so it is a risky business to disaggregate the creation or development or evolution of research universities from the national systems and from the global frameworks that affect them. They are embedded in both. In terms of the purpose of the theme of this volume it is important to understand how academic freedom plays itself out within the overall system instead of just at the research university. C O NDITIO NS FOR THE EMERGENCE OF RESEARCH...

A Rough Set Based Approach to Find Learners' Key Personality Attributes in an E-Learning Environment

One of the challenges in personalized e-learning research is how to find the unique learning strategies according to a learner’s personality characteristic. A learner’s personality characteristic may have many attributes, and all of them may not have equal values. Correlation analysis, regression analysis, discriminator function, and educational psychology have been used to find solutions, but these methods have their shortcomings. This article proposes an improved approach based on rough set theory to find the key personality attributes and evaluates the importance of these attributes. The approach has been successfully used in the actual e-learning environment for a major research university in China.

Changing Faces of Open and Distance Learning in Asia

It is no incident that IRRODL begins the year of 2007 with this regional focus edition on “Changing Faces of Open and Distance Learning in Asia.” Over the recent years, there has been tremendous growth and diversity in open and distance learning (ODL) in Asia. With over 56 percent of the global population, Asia has over 70 universities that are dedicated to open access to education, including seven out of 11 of the world's mega universities (universities with over 100,000 active students in degree-level courses) serving six million active students all together (Daniel, 1996). Quite a few distance teaching universities or programs such as the Bangladeshi Open University, the Hanoi Open University, the Open University Malaysia, and the Open and Distance Learning Program in Singapore, have been established since the 1990s and now provide tertiary level education to those seeking continuing education opportunities. Virtual universities are growing fast and, with 17 virtual universities in Korea alone! Many conventional, campusbased universities have started to offer e-Learning programs as well. For example, 67 e-Colleges have been established within conventional research universities in China.