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Measuring Up in Higher Education

How University Rankings and League Tables are Re-shaping Knowledge Production in the Global Era

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  • © 2021

Overview

Editors:
  1. Anthony Welch

    1. University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia

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  2. Jun Li

    1. Western University, London, Canada

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  • Examines the quality assessment movement in a world of globalized academic scholarship
  • Discusses the reasons for the emergence of publication indexes as measures of productivity, and analyzes alternatives
  • Documents changes over the past 25 years in academic productivity and its measurement

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Table of contents (16 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xii
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  2. The Global Ranking Regime and the Redefined Mission of Higher Education in the Post-Covid Era

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1
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    2. The Global Ranking Regime and the Redefined Mission of Higher Education in the Post-Covid Era: An Introduction

      • Jun Li
      Pages 3-18

  3. Conceptualization and Theory Building

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 19-19
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    2. Rank Scholarship Today

      • David Post, Amy Stambach, Mark Ginsburg, Emily Hannum, Aaron Benavot
      Pages 21-46

    3. Local Knowledge When Ranking Journals: Reproductive Effects and Resistant Possibilities

      • Suresh Canagarajah
      Pages 47-73

    4. The Ranking Regime and the Production of Knowledge: Implications for Academia

      • Leslie D. Gonzales, Anne-Marie Núñez
      Pages 75-101

    5. The Influence of Rankings and Incentive Systems on Academic Publishing in South African Universities

      • Crain Soudien
      Pages 103-120

    6. Ranking Regime and the Future of Vernacular Scholarship

      • Mayumi Ishikawa
      Pages 121-151

    7. The SSCI Syndrome in Taiwan’s Academia

      • Chuing Prudence Chou
      Pages 153-173

  4. Cases, Contexts and Reflections

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 175-175
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    2. The Global Ranking Regime and the Reconfiguration of Higher Education: Comparative Case Studies on Research Assessment Exercises in China, Hong Kong, and Japan

      • Jun Li
      Pages 177-202

    3. Measuring by Numbers: Bibliometric Evaluation of Faculty’s Research Outputs and Impact on Academic Life in China

      • Wenqin Shen, Dan Mao, Yaqiong Lin
      Pages 203-227

    4. Trends in Publication in the Race for World-Class University: The Case of Taiwan

      • Chuing Prudence Chou
      Pages 229-248

    5. The Paradox of Autonomy: Japan’s Vernacular Scholarship and the Policy Pursuit of “Super Global”

      • Mayumi Ishikawa, Chengzhi Sun
      Pages 249-274

    6. The Shifting Sands of Academic Output: University of Cape Town Research Output in Education and Social Anthropology (1993–2013)

      • Crain Soudien, Derek Gripper
      Pages 275-294

    7. Audit Culture and Academic Production: Re-Shaping Australian Social Science Research Output (1993–2013)

      • Anthony Welch
      Pages 295-316

    8. Global Research Productivity Rivalry: A Comparative Case Studies of Two Latin American Public Universities

      • Gustavo Gregorutti, Marcelo Rabossi, Hugo Casanova
      Pages 317-341

    9. Scientific Journals of Universities of Chile, Colombia, and Venezuela: Actors and Roles

      • Jorge Enrique Delgado
      Pages 343-371

  5. In League: The Brave New World of Higher Education

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 373-373
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Keywords

About this book

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.

Editors and Affiliations

  • University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia

    Anthony Welch

  • Western University, London, Canada

    Jun Li

About the editors

Anthony Welch is Professor of Education at the University of Sydney, Australia. His numerous publications, that have been published in 12 languages, address education reforms, principally within Australia, and the Asia-Pacific, and mainly on Higher Education. His recent books include The Professoriate: Profile of a Profession (2005), Education, Change and Society (2017), ASEAN Industries and the Challenge from China (2011), Counting the Cost: Financing Higher Education for Inclusive Growth in Asia (2012) and Higher Education in South East Asia; Blurring Borders, Changing Balance. (2011).

 

Jun Li is Chair and Professor of Critical Policy, Equity and Leadership Studies at the Faculty of Education, Western University, Canada, with recent focus on educational improvement studies. Currently he serves as an Advisory Board Member for Comparative Education Review and a co-founding editor of the CIES Book Series on Education in Global Perspective. His new publications include “Autonomy, Governance and the Chinese University 3.0: A Zhong-Yong Model from Comparative, Cultural and Contemporary Perspectives” (The China Quarterly, 244[4], 2020) and single-authored “Quest for World-Class Teacher Education? A Multiperspectival Study on the Chinese Model of Policy Implementation” (Springer, 2016).

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: Measuring Up in Higher Education

  • Book Subtitle: How University Rankings and League Tables are Re-shaping Knowledge Production in the Global Era

  • Editors: Anthony Welch, Jun Li

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-7921-9

  • Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Singapore

  • eBook Packages: Education, Education (R0)

  • Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2021

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-981-15-7920-2Published: 04 May 2021

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-981-15-7923-3Published: 04 May 2022

  • eBook ISBN: 978-981-15-7921-9Published: 03 May 2021

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: XII, 391

  • Number of Illustrations: 1 b/w illustrations, 14 illustrations in colour

  • Topics: International and Comparative Education, Education Policy, Higher Education

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