Academic Star Wars

Excellence Initiatives in Global Perspective

Maria Yudkevich, Philip G. Altbach, Jamil Salmi

• Publisher: The MIT Press
• Year: 2023
• eBook ISBN: 9780262376709
• Edition: 0
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Comparative Education

Academic excellence initiatives (AEIs)—special government-sponsored programs to improve research universities—have provided billions of dollars to top universities and represent perhaps the most significant effort in the past half-century to jump-start academic research. The contributors to Academic Star Wars, superbly edited by Maria Yudkevich, Philip G. Altbach, and Jamil Salmi, analyze AEIs in nine European and Asian countries, including China, Japan, Malaysia, South Korea, Taiwan, Denmark, France, Germany, and Russia, and offer penetrating insights into the successes and problems of these initiatives, as well as into the broader system of higher education itself.

Academic Star Wars provides a comprehensive analysis of AEIs across the globe as it seeks to understand the impact of these programs on national higher ed systems. The contributors explore a host of topics, including how the idea of excellence varies across national systems; the lessons to be drawn from the most successful AEIs; the consequences of AEIs, both intended and unintended, for participating universities; and whether AEIs ensure a significant impact on the global standing of national higher education systems. Finally, the contributors offer policy recommendations for national decision-makers and university leaders, taking into account the variety of initial conditions of national higher education systems and the differences in AEI design, scope, and funding.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• 1. The Context of Academic Excellence Initiatives
• 2. Academic Excellence Initiatives: The Case of China
• 3. Academic Excellence Initiatives in Japan: Can a Series of Government Interventions Make a Difference?
• 4. Malaysia’s Quest for Excellence in Higher Education
• 5. Academic Excellence Initiatives in the Republic of Korea: Brain Korea 21
• 6. Did Taiwan Academic Excellence Initiatives Build World-Class Universities? Governance, Funding Schemes, and Policy Shifts
• 7. Academic Excellence Initiatives: The Danish Case
• 8. Academic Excellence à la Française: Between Excellence and Equality
• 9. The Long and Winding Road to Excellence: The German Case
• 10. A Project for the Elite That Changed the System as a Whole: A Case Study of Project 5–100
• 11. The Transformative Impact of Academic Excellence Initiatives: What Have We Learned?
• Contributors
• Index