Overview
- Examines the quality assessment movement in a world of globalized academic scholarship
- Discusses the reasons for the emergence of publication indexes as measures of productivity, and analyzes alternatives
- Documents changes over the past 25 years in academic productivity and its measurement
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About this book
This book examines the quality assessment movement in academic scholarship, as globalization prompts a search for global measures of university services and output. It gauges productivity in terms of universal publication metrics, and considers ranking and research productivity from a comparative perspective. The book considers the use of the “impact factor” as a gauge of publication value, noting that this less important in countries lacking central government appropriations to universities and to research. It argues that pressure to publish in certain journals, and to research topics of interest to English language readers, has been felt differentially in English-language systems, compared to others, but also that performance pressures fall more on younger, more juniour, contract staff, than on senior and tenured professors. It problematizes international comparisons of quality, and analyses the benefits of a zone of ideas and metrics in a common language – promoting international mobility, efficiency, collaboration - but also the costs which are rarely borne equally across countries, languages and cultures. The book provides a strong, evidence-based contribution to major debates in contemporary higher education reforms and the measurement of academic output.
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Keywords
- Measurement of Academic Output
- Quality Assessment Movement in Academic Scholarship
- Universal Publication Metrics
- Research Productivity from a Comparative Perspective.
- University Rankings
- Performance Pressures in Academia
- Academic Quality and International Comparisons
- Contemporary Higher Education Reforms
Table of contents (16 chapters)
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Front Matter
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The Global Ranking Regime and the Redefined Mission of Higher Education in the Post-Covid Era
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Front Matter
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Conceptualization and Theory Building
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Front Matter
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Cases, Contexts and Reflections
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Front Matter
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In League: The Brave New World of Higher Education
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Front Matter
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Editors and Affiliations
About the editors
Anthony Welch is Professor of Education at the University of Sydney, Australia. His numerous publications, that have been published in 12 languages, address education reforms, principally within Australia, and the Asia-Pacific, and mainly on Higher Education. His recent books include The Professoriate: Profile of a Profession (2005), Education, Change and Society (2017), ASEAN Industries and the Challenge from China (2011), Counting the Cost: Financing Higher Education for Inclusive Growth in Asia (2012) and Higher Education in South East Asia; Blurring Borders, Changing Balance. (2011).
Jun Li is Chair and Professor of Critical Policy, Equity and Leadership Studies at the Faculty of Education, Western University, Canada, with recent focus on educational improvement studies. Currently he serves as an Advisory Board Member for Comparative Education Review and a co-founding editor of the CIES Book Series on Education in Global Perspective. His new publications include “Autonomy, Governance and the Chinese University 3.0: A Zhong-Yong Model from Comparative, Cultural and Contemporary Perspectives” (The China Quarterly, 244[4], 2020) and single-authored “Quest for World-Class Teacher Education? A Multiperspectival Study on the Chinese Model of Policy Implementation” (Springer, 2016).
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Measuring Up in Higher Education
Book Subtitle: How University Rankings and League Tables are Re-shaping Knowledge Production in the Global Era
Editors: Anthony Welch, Jun Li
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-7921-9
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Singapore
eBook Packages: Education, Education (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2021
Hardcover ISBN: 978-981-15-7920-2Published: 04 May 2021
Softcover ISBN: 978-981-15-7923-3Published: 04 May 2022
eBook ISBN: 978-981-15-7921-9Published: 03 May 2021
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XII, 391
Number of Illustrations: 1 b/w illustrations, 14 illustrations in colour
Topics: International and Comparative Education, Education Policy, Higher Education