How Tsinghua Became a World Class Research University: A Case Study on the Impact of Rankings on a Chinese Higher Education Institution
Authors
Pang, Lu
Issue Date
2018-12-12
Type
Thesis
Language
en_US
Keywords
Global university rankings , Higher education management , Quality of higher education
Alternative Title
Abstract
Today’s global knowledge economy has highlighted the need for the comparison of higher education quality. This need has been largely met by international university rankings. Although it is widely recognized that no one ranking system is completely objective, higher education stakeholders across the world still take rankings’ results seriously. Rankings, thereby, exert a great deal of influence on higher education institutions. Ranking affects higher education through various approaches. In a variety of practical manifestations, the idea of building a “world-class” university has been widely adopted by national governments that urgently want to improve competitiveness in the globalized knowledge economy. Chinese universities (in this thesis, China, or Chinese, refers to mainland China) have been steadily climbing up international rankings over the last decade. The extraordinary achievement has its roots in the initiative of establishing “world-class” universities. This study explored the actual course of events through which a Chinese university raises its statures in global rankings. By using an exploratory case study research design, the study attempted to answer the question about how a Chinese university became a world-class research university according to the global ranking systems. The findings revealed that an antiquated university has the potential to update to a high-quality modern research institution within a short period of time if talents, resources, and governance mechanism are adequately aligned.
Description
Citation
L. Pang, "How Tsinghua Became a World Class Research University: A Case Study on the Impact of Rankings on a Chinese Higher Education Institution", Ph.D. dissertation, School of Education, Univ. of Bridgeport, Bridgeport, CT, 2018.