The role universities play in advancing COVID-specific knowledge and long-term management of this global crisis is largely unknown. In this comparative perspective study, we document the ways in which members from universities in the US, New Zealand, Italy, South Korea, and China engage in activities to respond to the pandemic. We frame this study…

Interest in higher education institutions (HEIs) as instruments for development has increased in recent years. The main objective of this paper is to address the contribution of HEIs to development through their missions, models, and challenges. With this purpose, we perform a historical analysis and characterise higher-education systems through…

Universities have come under increasing pressure to become key drivers of economic development in the age of the knowledge economy. In the case of Italy, there has been concern in recent years about quality and funding of academic institutions, but hardly any reference has been made about the impact of university quality on students' access to the…