The issue of grade inflation has been studied in many countries across the globe, yet it remains under-researched in Pakistan. This study aims to understand grade inflation in Pakistani universities by examining the contributing factors and its consequences. The data for this study was collected through in-depth interviews of 20 professors from…

Increasing competition among research universities has spurred a race to recruit academic labor to staff research teams, graduate programs, and laboratories. Yet, often ignored is how such efforts entail negotiating a pervasive hierarchy of universities, where elite institutions in the West continue to attract the best students and researchers…

Based on an analysis of policy documents, questionnaires and interviews, the paper discusses the experiences of Chinese young academics on tenure-track contracts. Findings suggest that young academics perceive tenure as a managerial solution to governance reform. Meanwhile, a population-resource imbalance and the uncertainty in career progression…

Many professions necessitate a graduate-level education, and research conducted by graduate students is integral in many fields, particularly those in the life science programs like ecology and environmental sciences. However, practices for recruiting and selecting graduate students are inconsistent among and within institutions. Although some…

This study examined challenges of employing university culture as a mechanism to increase commitment to the internationalization strategy among university internal stakeholders. Data were collected from a sample of 235 students, faculty, and staff from a top-ranked university in Russia. The study showed a misalignment between internal marketing…

This study, which aims to investigate some potential effects derived from the adoption of performance-oriented funding in the higher education system, is focused on competitive allocative mechanism to provide universities with the staff recruitment budget in the Italian Higher Education System using panel data spanning the period 2012-2018 for 58…

The recruitment crisis for teachers in England has led to policy reforms which have significantly deregulated the sector, introduced market mechanisms to mimic aspects of the private sector and set providers in competition with one another. Leaders in Initial Teacher Education (ITE), from both schools and universities in England, were interviewed…

The perception of academic researchers on management instruments has generated significant controversy in the literature. Studies have highlighted that these perceptions affect research performance more than management itself. This work addresses this issue by proposing a subjective measurement that explains research incentives in a public…

This study utilises an institutional logic perspective to explore the dynamics and complexity of academic personnel system reforms at leading Chinese universities. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 32 participants from 10 highly ranked universities; these interviews obtained the views of key observers on four main reform initiatives:…

Taking the migration-higher education nexus as an analytical entry point, we address the question: How can we account for different internationalisation outcomes? We focus on three actors involved in the global race to internationalise higher education activities: higher education institutions (HEIs), states, and migrants. We argue that the…

Academic career systems have been in focus lately as a means to attract talented researchers and teachers. In this paper, we compare tenure tracks at three Swedish universities. The analysis relies on qualitative data, including interviews and policy documents, and revolves around three questions: How is the tenure track designed? What were the…

Education is a tool for collaboration among nations. The emergence of concepts as internationalization of educational policies, students-staff exchange programs, internationalization of curriculum, internationalization at home (IAH) or even the emergence of multinational agencies to expedite global exchanges in the realm of Higher Education lead…

On the basis of reforms to undergraduate education at Peking University, this article sets out from students' free choice and strict institutional selection, focusing on the process of the cultivation of the elite in mass higher education. The article analyzes the systems for student recruitment, talent training, educational programs, testing and…

East Asian higher education has experienced an important shift by it's national universities to pay increasing attention to rankings in the wake of globalization. This critical feature influences inter-university competition for resources, faculty and students. During this process, these universities have restructured their organizations and…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to critically investigate the discourse on "competitive advantage", a concept that has been widely applied in the public higher education sector, but rarely defined and conceptualised. Design/methodology/approach: In order to get some insightful understanding about how "competitive…