The growing influence of global rankings drives higher education institutions (HEIs) across the globe to conform to the indicators and implement changes to obtain world-class status. We examine why HEIs in similar institutional environments are structured and processed differently on the ranking issue with different outcomes. By employing a…

Universities around the world are undergoing a marketisation process in order to respond to consumer-oriented demands. Despite priority shifts, universities have remained traditionally hierarchical and elitist. Moreover, a new and growing generation of academic researchers has found it increasingly difficult to integrate in academia. Systems and…

Opsimaths are a unique group of late learners among adult learners who qualify as Knowles' 'neglected species'. Opsimaths usually face more daunting challenges in their academic journey than other adult learners. In this study, we employ the [exploratory] phenomenological design to present the experiences of 15 opsimaths in Ghana who entered the…

Differentiation has gained widespread acceptance across the Ontario policy community as a mechanism that can improve the overall quality of the PSE system. Though much has been said locally about the supposed benefits of differentiation, including its ability to reduce programme duplication and boost institutional efficiency, little attention has…

Over the past decade discontent in Flemish universities with the increased work load of faculty members has risen. This study is the first to examine how many hours a week senior researcher (postdocs and faculty) in Flemish universities actually work. The data used stems from the 2010 Survey of Senior Researcher conducted among senior researchers…

This study explores how organizational identity is linked with organizational behavior and change at U.S. colleges and universities. Using IPEDS data from 914 public and private not-for-profit four-year institutions, this study analyzes how institutions' identity claims through their self-identified comparison groups are associated with Carnegie…

After the Revolution of Dignity (2014), Ukraine signed an Association Agreement with the European Union. In the context of European integration, new legislation on higher education has been adopted. Changes in the institutional environment expect responses from higher education institutions, in particular changes in the organizational identities…

This study examines the Korean Government's policy scheme of setting up the World-Class University (WCU) Project by investigating the perceptions of major actors, including WCU scholars and government officials. In-depth interviews were held with 18 WCU scholars and three government officials. Our findings suggest that the limits of the…

This article aims to explore the academic identities under the conditions of means-ends decoupling at the nation-state level. For empirical evidence we choose Ukraine. In 2014, after the Revolution of Dignity despite the adoption of the policies aimed to construct academic identities like in the Western universities the intended outcomes were not…