Post on 28-May-2020
Excellence Initiatives and Internationalization:Is it Working?
Jamil Salmi
IREG 8 – Lisbon, 6 May 2016
Venezuela
Saudi Arabia
% change in per student funding
(FY08 – FY13)
-50,4
16,5
-60
-50
-40
-30
-20
-10
0
10
20
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Budget Evolution (2008 – 2014)
Adjusted for inflation
Countries
20% or more increase Germany, Norway, Sweden
10 to 20% increase Austria, Belgium (Fr)
5 to 10% increase Poland
5% increase to 5% decrease Belgium (Fl), Iceland, Netherlands,
Portugal
5 to 10% decrease Croatia, Slovenia
10 to 20% decrease Czech Rep., Serbia, Slovakia, Spain
20 to 40% decrease Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, United Kingdom
More than 40% decrease Greece, Hungary
higher education at the center of economic competitiveness
Asian dragons
Nordic countries
EU Lisbon agenda
Nothing will matter more to Europe’s future than the
ability of countries, governments, workers and
companies to innovate
outline of the presentation
the road to academic excellence
excellence initiatives
impact on internationalization
the path to glory
creating a new institution
mergers
upgrading existing institutions
creating a new institution
HKUST, KAUST, Masdar Institute of Technologly, Nazarbayev University, Skolkovo Institute of Science & Technology, U of Luxembourg
high investment costs
getting the right culture from the beginning
creating a deep tradition of research
academic freedom
mergers approach
China, Russia, France, Denmark, Finland
potential synergies
1+1=3
clash of cultures
mergers in Denmark
voluntary
special fund to encourage mergers
U. of Aarhus
disciplinary complementarity
mergers in Russia
imposed by government (Federal Universities
Program)
geographical proximity but not always academic
complementarity
tension between old regional focus and new global
orientation
increased competition for academics
upgrading approach
less costly
challenge of creating a culture of excellence
focus on governance
successful cases
UCLA, ASU & University of Maryland
University of Leeds
Aarhus University
Polytechnique of Lausanne (EPFL)
which approach works best?
upgrading and merging complicated
establishing a new university from scratch potentially
easier
outline of the presentation
the road to academic excellence
excellence initiatives
Excellence Initiatives
large injection of additional funding
aimed at upgrading existing universities
in an accelerated manner
Germany
The Excellence Initiative aims to promote top-level
research and to improve the quality of German
universities and research institutions in general, thus
making Germany a more attractive research location,
making it more internationally competitive and focusing
attention on the outstanding achievements of German
universities and the German scientific community.
excellence initiatives
excellence initiatives (II)
repetition of EI
characteristics of EIs
• focus on entire institutions or individual departments / centers
• focus on young researchers (postdocs and tenure track)
• allocation method: competitive or picking winners
• new in Western/Southern Europe
• involvement of international experts in selection of winners
• scholarship programs (Brazil, Chile, Kazakhstan, S. Korea, Saudi Arabia)
characteristics of EI
government-funded
sometimes co-funding national/local gvt (Germany,
China)
grants, endowment (France), loan (Spain)
public vs. private universities
research vs. teaching
challenge of evaluating
Excellence Initiatives
time dimension
robustness of data
attribution
correlation vs. causality
self-selection
other factors or combination of factors
OECD evaluation (2014)
one of their major benefits has been to provide funding
for high-impact / high-risk basic research
also funding for interdisciplinary and cooperative
research endeavors
who is rising in the rankings?
Country 2004 2015 Change
China 16 44 + 28
Australia 14 20 + 6
Saudi Arabia 0 4 + 4
South Korea 8 12 +4
Spain 9 13 +4
Taiwan 5 9 + 4
China’s successive programs
211 program: 100 top quality universities for the 21st
Century
985 program: developing 9 world-class universities
(C9 League), to compete with the premier group of
universities world-wide
extended to 39 universities
World-Class 2.0
results: 16 universities in 2004, 44 in 2014
who is falling in the rankings?
Country 2004 2015 Change
Canada 23 20 -3
Italy 23 20 -3
Germany 43 39 - 4
United Kingdom 42 38 - 4
Japan 36 18 - 16
United States 170 146 - 24
Japan
restrictions on collaboration with foreign partners
research output gap between Japan and the United
States / United Kingdom
only 25% of scientific papers written by Japanese
academics have international co-authors, compared to
52% for British scientists.
Japanese universities count only 4% of foreign
academics
top 100 (2015 Shanghai ranking)
Country Number of universities
USA 51
California 11
UK 9
Australia 5
Canada 4
France 4
Germany 4
Switzerland 4
Japan 4
Netherlands 4
Massachusetts 3
Sweden 3
Denmark 2
Belgium 1
Finland 1
Israel 2
Norway 1
Russian Federation 1
top 100 universities / 1 million people
0,01
0,03
0,05
0,06
0,11
0,14
0,16
0,17
0,18
0,19
0,20
0,24
0,26
0,29
0,31
0,36
0,46
0,52
0,00 0,10 0,20 0,30 0,40 0,50 0,60
Russia
Japan
Germany
France
Canada
United Kingdom
USA
Australia
Finland
Belgium
Norway
Netherlands
Israel
California
Sweden
Denmark
Massachusetts
Switzerland
countries improving most at
the top
Switzerland (no)
the Netherlands (no)
Australia (yes)
Denmark (yes)
Israel (yes)
Belgium (no)
largest jump in ranking
(universities)
+ 300: Shanghai Jiao Tong U & King Saud U
+ 200: U of Marseille, Fudan U, Technion
entrance into top 100: EPFL (Lausanne), Aarhus U, U
of Geneva, Ghent U, Free U of Amsterdam
significant jump within top 100: U. of Manchester, U. of
Melbourne
outline of the presentation
the road to academic excellence
excellence initiatives
impact on internationalization
vintage bias?
accelerating factors
being a niche institution and / or offering niche
programs
curriculum, pedagogical and managerial innovations
strategic planning and benchmarking
internationalization
internationalization in
Excellence Initiatives
recruitment of foreign researchers (mid-career, fast-
rising, and postdocs)
return of Diaspora
foreign masters & doctoral students
English language
internationalization in
Excellence Initiatives (II)
students and academics mobility
joint degree programs
international research (collaborations and co-
publications, joint research, ERC, US)
0,3
0,5
1,4
2,0
2,3
2,6
0,00
0,50
1,00
1,50
2,00
2,50
3,00
Greece Ireland Finland Portugal Switzerland Cyprus
ERC grants by country of host institutions per 1 million inhabitants
co-publications
citation impact
US 2001 US 2011 UK 2001 UK 2011
is it working?
indicators show positive impact of EIs
virtual circles:
reducing in-breeding
enlarging the scientific perimeter (more disciplines, more
multi-disciplinary programs)
building critical mass
is it working? (II)
leading edge science attracting top researchers, and
vice-versa…
top researchers?
well-integrated? access to research funds, promotions,
salaries and taxation...
effective capacity building?
alignment?
Autonomy
Academic Freedom
Students
Teaching Staff
Researchers
Leading-Edge
Research
Dynamic
Knowledge &
Technology
Transfer
Concentration
of Talent
Abundant
ResourcesFavorable
Governance
Leadership Team
Strategic Vision
Culture of Excellence
Public Budget Resources
Endowment Revenues
Tuition Fees
Research Grants
WPU Supportive
Regulatory
Framework
Top
Graduates
Characteristics of a Well-Performing University
Alignment of Key Factors
Source: Elaborated by Jamil Salmi
two challenges
governance
financing
governance of EIs
• HR policies (entry level, no tenure system)
• Salaries (France, Japan, Taiwan)
• organizational structure of universities
• dual structure within universities
• French EI: inability to deal with duality of system (“grandes
écoles” and universities)
• selection of university heads
• elections and the long-term view
Spain
Universities should be given the freedom to succeed
and to fail. Being held on a short leash by
Government will not lead to excellence… An
appropriate balance between regulation, steering and
institutional autonomy needs to be found.
Rolf Tarrach
financing of EIs
• financial stability over the years
• crisis (Japan and Spain)
• phased programs
• endowment (France)
• 750 million of Euros endowment
• 25 million annual interests
• permanent feature (Germany)
impact of Excellence
Initiatives
thinking about, boosting and measuring university performance
money is not enough, governance is fundamental?
fueling internationalization
internationalization strategy?
feeding the rankings?
part of the University’s overall strategic development?
Blue Ocean strategy
how to create uncontested market space and make
competition irrelevant?
Red Ocean: similar universities competing for the
same market – global dimension
Blue Ocean: non existent, untapped markets
making the competition irrelevant
Blue Ocean strategy
has your mission changed? who and where are your
customers (students and stakeholders)?
are you imitating others or creating your own value
proposition?
what is your university’s operating model? do you have
a sustainable funding strategy?
what missing capacities do you need to build?
the alternative is not business
as usual – it’s obsolescence.
Marguerite Dennis
dare to be different
• niche area for research excellence (Finland)
• teaching excellence (France, Germany and UK)
• inclusion (ASU)
• regional development
• Newcastle
• grand challenges (KAUST)