What makes a World Class University?

When you hear the term world-class used to describe a university, I bet a lot of pre-conceived ideas pop into your head: ivory towers with a sprawling campus complete with a great lawn and a library established in historic times. And while some of those features might hold true, those are not the common attributes that define a world-class university.

“Every country wants a world-class university. No country feels it can do without one. The problem is that no one knows what a world-class university is, and no one has figured out how to get one.”

(Academe, January-February 2004.)

In the 2011 publication, ‘The Road to Academic Excellence’, Philip Altbach and Jamil Salmi have described 3 criteria for defining a world class university. Clarivate Analytics takes that analysis further by then examining a further question: How can a university, in pursuit of world-class status, best marshal its resources and monitor its progress? In the Defining World Class Universities whitepaper, Clarivate Analytics poises 3 strategic questions in the context of research analytics for universities to consider when setting strategies on route to becoming a world-class university: the role of governance, talent, and resources.

Download the Defining World Class Universities whitepaper to see how you can apply the three strategic questions to set your strategy for future success.