This study used the historical research method to explore the Chinese government's role in building world-class universities. We traced the government's role in pushing policies for: (1) accelerating academic improvement; and (2) enhancing the involvement of provincial governments in achieving universities' world-class status. The findings…

The U.S. has many of poor- and under-performing colleges, where millions of students are paying and borrowing a lot. Unfortunately, most students do not know that schools are underperforming until it is too late. The higher education industry has coasted on the reputation of the nation's most prestigious schools. Nationally, only about 42 percent…

To better realize their goals and overcome the many hurdles they encounter, tribal college leaders established the American Indian Higher Education Consortium (AIHEC) to serve as the "collective voice and unifying spirit" of the tribal college movement. For over four decades, AIHEC has taken the dreams and aspirations of the tribal…

Every winter, during the second week of February, tribal college presidents, student representatives, and a myriad of others passionate about tribal education trek out to Washington, DC to visit Capitol Hill for National Tribal College Week. This week, also referred to as the American Indian Higher Education Consortium (AIHEC) Winter Meeting, is…

The Government Performance and Results Modernization Act of 2010 defines major management challenges as programs or management functions that are vulnerable to waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement, and where a failure to perform well could seriously affect the ability of the U.S. Department of Education (Department) to achieve its mission or…

In this article, Linda Eisenman reviews the history of the "Association of American Colleges" (AAC), whose 150 college executives gathered in Chicago in 1915 to create the Association, and chose "inclusiveness" and "interhelpfulness" as twin themes to animate their organization. "Inclusiveness" allowed many…

"Matching Students to Opportunity" expands on the discussion of a critical issue in college access and success: the match between prospective students and the colleges in which they enroll. Research indicates that ensuring a good match significantly increases a student's chance of graduating. The contributors to this volume argue that…

Higher education reform in China is deepening, and the governance reform taking place at the 985 Project universities over the past decade has displayed a shift from government driven to internally driven, from adaptive to proactive, and from localized to systemic. This reflects the overall status of governance reform in China's higher education.…

The federal government invests billions of dollars in grants and loans to help students access and complete postsecondary education. Federal policymakers, therefore, have had a continuing interest in understanding the ability of students to transfer credits between postsecondary institutions. In 2005, the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and…

Looking at the rise of world-class universities through history, creating an institutional environment in which universities are relatively autonomous, while also ensuring effective material support from the government is essential for the formation of world-class universities. It is worth examining the deteriorating academic environment in China…

As described in "Go8 Backgrounder 24: Answering the Global Challenge--Experiences from European Excellence Initiatives," Germany began a debate about how to strengthen its position as an excellent location for science and research in 2004. This debate focussed in particular on the competitiveness of the country's universities and…

China's 985 Project, which came after the 211 Project, is a key program of the Chinese government to create world-class universities and high-level research universities. The central government invested a total of RMB32.9 billion in special funds for phase I (1999-2001) and phase II (2004-2007) of the project, assisting thirty-nine universities.…

Generally, there are two types of Chinese public educational policymaking: problem oriented and ideal oriented. The 985 Project policy clearly exhibits the characteristics of the latter. Usually, the goals of ideal-oriented policymaking are long-term and overarching, so they can play a role in propagating, directing, and encouraging people to…

The development of world-class universities is high on the policy agenda of governments across the globe. China's 985 Project is among the earliest national initiatives to concentrate research funding to build world-class universities. Ten years after it was initiated, the project has enabled selected institutions to improve their research and…

The increasing connection among higher education institutions worldwide is well documented. What is less understood is how this connectivity is enacted and manifested on specific levels of the global education network. This book details the planning process of a multi-institutional program in engineering between institutions in the US and…