Measuring Up in Higher Education : How University Rankings and League Tables are Re-shaping Knowledge Production in the Global Era / edited by Anthony Welch, Jun Li.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Welch, Anthony R., editor.

Li, Jun, 1968- editor.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

International education.

Comparative education.

Education and state.

Education, Higher.

International and Comparative Education.

Education Policy.

Higher Education.

Local Subjects:

International and Comparative Education.

Education Policy.

Higher Education.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (391 pages)

Edition:

1st ed. 2021.

Place of Publication:

Singapore : Springer Nature Singapore : Imprint: Palgrave Macmillan, 2021.

Summary:

This book examines the quality assessment movement in academic scholarship, as globalization prompts a search for global measures of university services and output. It gauges productivity in terms of universal publication metrics, and considers ranking and research productivity from a comparative perspective. The book considers the use of the “impact factor” as a gauge of publication value, noting that this less important in countries lacking central government appropriations to universities and to research. It argues that pressure to publish in certain journals, and to research topics of interest to English language readers, has been felt differentially in English-language systems, compared to others, but also that performance pressures fall more on younger, more juniour, contract staff, than on senior and tenured professors. It problematizes international comparisons of quality, and analyses the benefits of a zone of ideas and metrics in a common language – promoting international mobility, efficiency, collaboration - but also the costs which are rarely borne equally across countries, languages and cultures. The book provides a strong, evidence-based contribution to major debates in contemporary higher education reforms and the measurement of academic output.

Contents:

The Global Ranking Regime and the Redefined Mission of Higher Education in the Post-Covid Era

An Introduction

Conceptualization and Theory Building

Rank Scholarship Today

Local Knowledge When Ranking Journals

The Ranking Regime and the Production of Knowledge

Academic Publishing in South African Universities

Vernacular Scholarship

The SSCI Syndrome

Cases, Contexts and Reflections

Comparative Case Studies on Research Assessment Exercises in China, Hong Kong, and Japan

Measuring by Numbers

The Case of Taiwan

The Paradox of Autonomy

The Shifting Sands of Academic Output

Audit Culture and Academic Production

Global Research Productivity Rivalry

Actors and Roles

In League: The Brave New World of Higher Education

Conclusion. .

ISBN:

9789811579219

9811579210

OCLC:

1250086302