University Rankings, Global Models, and Emerging Hegemony

Abstract

The study analyzes how the emergence of dominant models in higher education and power they embody affect non-Western, non-English language universities such as those in Japan. Based on extended micro-level participant observation in a Japanese research university aspiring to become a "world-class" institution, their struggles and the quest for new identities are examined. The prevalent and oft-referenced university rankings and league tables give rise to de facto global standards and models, against which traditions of national language education and research as well as self-sustenance in human resources are challenged and tested. Such new modes of objectifying academic excellence alter domestic academic hierarchies and internal dynamics within universities. This study uses these insights to look critically at new dimensions of knowledge construction and an emerging hegemony in today's global higher education context.

Issues surrounding English, the internationalisation of higher education and national cultural identity in Asia: a focus on Japan

“…The latest and most ambitious government initiative is the Global 30 Project announced in 2008 in response to global competitiveness and the increasing worry among the government and its universities about Japan losing its attractiveness to foreign students. This Global 30 Project is also situated in the context of an effort on the part of the government to intensify and diversify Japan's internationalisation of higher education endeavour and to make Japan a hub for the global elite as well as a country with the highest number of international students in the region (Burgess, Gibson, Klaphake, & Selzer, 2010;Huang, 2009;Ishikawa, 2009;Kuwamura, 2009;Yonezawa, Akiba, & Hirouchi, 2009). The Global 30 Project energetically promotes English as the medium of instruction at all levels in the country's 13 most prestigious universities with the hope of bringing 300,000 international students to Japan by 2020.…”

Aspiration for global cultural capital in the stratified realm of global higher education: why do Korean students go to US graduate schools?

“…Recently, universities and national policy-makers in education around the world have been obsessed with the global rankings of universities (Horta 2009;Ishikawa 2009;Marginson and van der Wende 2006). The war for reputation and dominant position in higher education is now increasingly intense, begetting various effects.…”

Governance and Academic Culture in Higher Education: Under the Influence of the SSCI Syndrome

“…Not surprisingly, these assessment standards have led scholars to narrow their focus, especially in the humanities and social sciences, and to emphasize publication in English-language international journals, instead local languages. The need to have research accepted by a relatively small number of editor-gatekeepers has led to a preference for topics preferred by international journals over those with local relevance addressing national needs (Ching, 2014;Ishikawa, 2009;Chen and Qian, 2004).…”