The universities said it! Arthur provides a (thinkable) scenario, via the University of Central Tasmania.

The academic ecology of China's elite universities has been deeply shaped by internationalization through the efforts of returnee faculty members. This study explores how to internationalize the Chinese academic ecology and create world-class universities by examining the experiences and perceptions of returnee faculty members in China's elite…

Within the global higher education structure, many nations have followed various strategies to become one of popular destinations for international students. Similarly, employing national strategy focusing on internationalisation, Turkey achieved to become an emerging regional hub as the tenth most popular destination for international students.…

Positioning strategy and ranking are critical issues in an increasingly competitive higher education landscape. Unless there is conceptual congruence between positioning strategies and rankings, the signals may become diffused and confusing for prospective students. This paper seeks the congruence between positioning strategies and ranking. Since…

This study reviews three university ranking methodologies: Quacquarelli Sysmonds University Rankings, The Times Higher Education World University Rankings, and the Shanghai Jiao Tong University's Academic Ranking of World Universities. It also aims to suggest two new methodologies, one for World University Ranking and one for Arab University…

The paper employs a glonacal agency heuristic to explore how certain research-intensive Chinese universities exercise agency in response to global and national impacts in creating the world-class university. Two global forces (international scholarly discussions on the world-class university and global university rankings) and one national force…

Global competition results in an overall demand for higher skills. In the competitive world, China has no choice but to adjust themselves to become more efficient, productive, and flexible. Higher education in China has played a key role in achieving socialist economy and modernization. Since the open-door policy in the 1980s, there has been a…

Globalizing forces have both transformed the higher education sector and made it increasingly homogenous. Growing similarities among universities have been attributed to isomorphic pressures to ensure and/or enhance legitimacy by imitating higher education institutions that are perceived as successful internationally, particularly universities…

Global university rankings are a worldwide trend that emerged in times of the globalisation and internationalisation of higher education. Universities worldwide are now striving to become "world-class" institutions and are constantly aiming to improve their ranking position. Global rankings of universities are thus perceived by many as…

This paper complements and extends the literature analysing the relationship of global rankings on universities' strategies, missions, structures, and functions. Specifically, it examines the extent to which global rankings have influenced development strategies of one Chilean university through administrator's perception and changes in the…

Amid debates about global university rankings (GURs), very few have closely examined how GURs' media outlets construct meanings of higher education (HE) in their visual representations. We critically examine 135 publicly available visual media (photographs) in the Times Higher Education (THE) and Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) websites to uncover the…

Driven by global rankings and national quality assurance (QA) initiatives, Taiwan's higher education institutions were encouraged to develop strategic plans and initiatives, in order to improve graduate student employability. The purpose of this study is to explore the polices and strategies adopted by Taiwanese higher education institutions, with…

UNESCO's relatively high prestige across East Asia has spurred intensifying efforts by governments to use its imprimatur to legitimate official narratives of the past and visions of the future. This article focuses on China's use of UNESCO as an arena for competitive national 'branding' in the education field, especially relating to STEM and AI.…

Internationalisation has become a worldwide trend in Higher Education in the rapidly changing globalised competitive market. Universities are pressurised to develop internationalised strategy to build legitimacy and reputation within the knowledge-based economy. An isomorphic tendency has been identified of universities mimicking successful…

The article uses the concept of organisational status to explore how universities respond to intensifying competition. Although status is not a novel phenomenon in higher education, recent insights show that the concerns with vertical positioning, both nationally and internationally, are gaining prominence with a growing number of universities…