Universities are specific local entities, and as such are in competition with one another for resources and prestige. The general tone of the literature--which sees universities mainly as specific organizations--is quite negative, with competition leading to destructive market and political forces. The tone is surprising, given the extraordinary…

This study focuses on the role of visual resources in constructing the brand identity of Chinese universities. By drawing on the theoretical concept of corporate visual identity (CVI), this study analyzed universities' logos and typography of names from the social semiotic approach. Nine elite Chinese universities were selected as the corpus to…

Considering the ubiquity, large volume of similar courses, and the huge cost of a course, it becomes imperative to understand factors affecting MOOCs course enrolments. This paper aims to investigate how the home page elements of a MOOC influence students' enrolments. The elements in the home page include course category, course description, team…

Initiatives to build research universities to have world-class universities, the creator and the disseminator of scientific knowledge in knowledge-based economies, are among the most important policy reactions in higher education systems. With an increase in demands on greater accountability, transparency, and efficiency, studies investigating the…

University rankings have gained prominence in tandem with the global race towards excellence and as part of the growing expectation of rational, scientific evaluation of performance across a range of institutional sectors and human activity. While their omnipresence is acknowledged, empirically we know less about whether and how rankings matter in…

Is organizational performance likely to improve when an organization employs acolytes (i.e., individuals with considerable experience of working with high-reputation industry leaders)? Firms with able, motivated, and opportunity-seeking acolytes are likely to benefit more in terms of unobtrusive access to quality knowledge and improved…

This article adopts the perspective of Sen's capability approach to examine elite athletes' environment and their capability to plan and prepare a career transition out of sport. Interviews were conducted with 14 elite athletes in Canada and results from the thematic analysis reveal that discrepancies exist in the athletes' environment. Three…

Purpose: This study aims to explore how student recruitment practitioners at regional Australian universities strategise student recruitment efforts in Thailand. There is scarce research addressing regional universities, with prior studies focusing on metropolitan universities. Similarly, most prior studies have focused on high-volume markets,…

Since the public intellectuals of the 1960s, there has been a shift towards the celebrity academic, as subjects such as history and science have transferred into popular television entertainment, often with female academics as the presenters. Using a case study of the British media, a post-feminist lens has been applied to examine how 17 celebrity…

This study documented the associations and variability of four prestige metrics for kinesiology-related journals. Four prestige metrics for the year 2022 were collected from three database services for 334 kinesiology-related journals. The prestige measures were highly skewed and had large variability, with medical journals having the highest…

To investigate the relationship between Chinese university funding and academic output, we collected data on the scale and the structure of funding and academic output of 36 World-Class universities under construction in China during 2013-21 and 2014-22. Furthermore, we empirically analyzed the effects of funding scale and structure on academic…

Education-UK and British private schools more specifically are often framed as a global brand of 'world-class' quality. However, the increased competition within the international education market has meant British private schools cannot rest on their laurels but instead must continue to project their 'world-classness' in a way that does not…

Universities face tough choices about how to allocate tight budgets. A frequent question is whether a significant investment in research that is crucial for the university's position in rankings will make the university more popular and lead to higher revenues from tuition. This paper analyses how the ranking and popularity of universities are…

In response to considerable critique of its rigour and relevance, the field of educational research has sought to prove its validity, both in terms of its scientific legitimacy and its relevance to policy and practice. One result of this has been a heightened concern with methodology, to the extent that a form of methodolatry has developed. In…

Purpose: The implementation and reporting of the sustainable development goals (SDGs) is one of the emerging challenges for higher education institutions (HEIs), but the lack of well-defined reporting structures and topics for this sector makes it difficult to map and evaluate HEI performance in relation to 2030 Agenda. This study aims to assess…