America’s UnExcellence Initiatives

By Philip G. Altbach. The world is focused on improving their top universities in order to be more competitive in the global knowledge economy and to raise their numbers in the higher education rankings. Jamil Salmi counted at least 36 “excellence initiatives” around the world that have pumped billions of dollars into the top universities in these countries — with resulting improvements in quality, research productivity, and emerging improvements un the rankings of these universities. Even in cash-strapped Russia, the “5-100” initiative is providing 70 million into each of 15 selected universities to help them improve and compete globally. Read more...