Includes bibliographical references and index.

Preliminary Material / Nian Cai Liu , Ying Cheng and Qi Wang -- Matching Visibility and Performance / Nian Cai Liu , Ying Cheng and Qi Wang -- Excellence Strategies and the Creation of World-Class Universities / Jamil Salmi -- Towards World-Class Systems / Simon Marginson -- World-Class Universities in an Age of Slow Growth / Alex Usher -- The Role of Universities in Society / Bernd Huber -- Transformation of University Governance through Internationalization / Akiyoshi Yonezawa and Yukiko Shimmi -- China’s Higher Education in Global Perspective / Marijk van der Wende and Jiabin Zhu -- Research Universities for National Rejuvenation and Global Influence / Gerard A. Postiglione -- Trading between Visibility and Performance at Global and Local Levels / Laurent Buisson -- Global Visibility and Local Engagement: Can They Go Together? / Maria Yudkevich -- A University for the Tropics / Chris Cocklin and Bradley Smith -- Developing Innovative and Entrepreneurial Graduates / Seeram Ramakrishna and Arun S. Mujumdar -- Exploring the Linkage between Rankings and Strategic Planning / Yang Zhang -- The Role of Universities, the Rise of Rankings, and Internationalization / Tony Chan , Michael Fung and Natalie Chang -- About the Authors / Nian Cai Liu , Ying Cheng and Qi Wang -- Global Perspectives On Higher Education / Nian Cai Liu , Ying Cheng and Qi Wang.

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The concept of world-class universities (WCU) has increasingly gained popularity in the past two decades around the world. WCU are regarded as cornerstone institutions of any academic system and imperative to develop a nation’s competitiveness in the global knowledge economy. The development of such universities is high on the policy agenda of various stakeholders worldwide, in both developed and developing countries and regions, and at both national and institutional levels, to promote their global competitiveness. Visibility and performance are among the most watched concepts in relation to develop WCUs, but remain complicated in nature and with no agreed upon definitions. Existing literature have focused on how to raise universities’ prestige, status, impact and rankings in the global and regional arena on the one hand, and how to enhance universities’ quality, efficiency, effectiveness and academic output on the other. However, whether visibility is a legitimate indicator of performance, or vice versa, is yet to be answered. Matching Visibility and Performance: A Standing Challenge for World-Class Universities provides insights of developing academic excellence from global, national and institutional perspectives, and intends to stimulate discussion on how universities can be ‘globally visible and locally engaged’ and how visibility and performance can be integrated and balanced in practice.