The research aims to identify the themes that leading universities worldwide focus on when constructing their image. The authors selected 50 international universities, leaders in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings (THE) for the year 2023, for the research. The research was carried out using content analysis. The material for…

This article explores the global aspirations of Chinese universities by examining the Chinese scholarly conceptualisation of guoji yingxiangli (literally meaning international influence) and its connection to the world-centred idea of tianxia. We interviewed 22 Chinese experts in education and conducted a documentary analysis of relevant Chinese…

Universities are specific local entities, and as such are in competition with one another for resources and prestige. The general tone of the literature--which sees universities mainly as specific organizations--is quite negative, with competition leading to destructive market and political forces. The tone is surprising, given the extraordinary…

We assessed the level of internationalization of Russian universities by different criteria, determined the influence of the indicators of internationalization on the attractiveness of universities and their competitiveness, identified the problem aspects of the considered process, and substantiated recommendations for their resolution. The study…

Universities face tough choices about how to allocate tight budgets. A frequent question is whether a significant investment in research that is crucial for the university's position in rankings will make the university more popular and lead to higher revenues from tuition. This paper analyses how the ranking and popularity of universities are…

Digitalization of university education in countries of Central Asia influences the satisfaction of the region's citizens' needs for knowledge and skills that are required in the quickly globalizing world. A high level of knowledge and practical skills, their accessibility, the openness of digital universities and teachers, flexibility of the…

Numerous countries have implemented excellence initiatives designed to establish world-class universities, boost research productivity, build up staff capacity, and thereby reform doctoral education systems as part of this agenda. To date, the relationship between excellence-driven initiatives and leading universities' doctoral education…

The article examines the global university reputation race, launched in 2003. Between 2003 and 2010, there appeared a cluster of publications on the qualitative comparative analysis of their methodologies, and since 2010, a cluster of publications on the quantitative comparative analysis of university rankings has started to form. The review made…

With the ubiquity of the internet in every domain of life, university websites are considered an effective tool to create institutional image and communicate with internal and external constituents. Focusing on websites of four universities in China and South Korea who seek to become World-class universities, this study examined how these…

For two centuries, academics and their universities have competed for prominence and vied to demonstrate that their institutions are at the center of the scholarly world. Scientific advances in particular fields, reciprocal academic visits and conferences, impressive physical architecture, and publishing in shared venues and a "lingua…

This article reviews the history of world university rankings and their large-scale impact. It then analyzes some of the criticism of the world ranking systems before exploring their impact in the context of Thai universities. The authors' assertions centre on the premise that much of the criticism of these ranking systems can be divided into…

Although internationalisation underpins many practices in higher education, its adopted approaches can be uneven between institutions and create ambiguous conceptualisations of how it is enacted in practice. Therefore, a whole-sector analysis can provide insight into whether spaces exist for new and innovative approaches to internationalisation,…

While serving as a benchmark of 'world-class' universities, the global university rankings do not include the vast majority of universities. However, "Times Higher Education" developed a Japanese national university ranking table in 2017, which includes approximately 40% of all Japanese universities. This increased coverage of…

The growing influence of global rankings drives higher education institutions (HEIs) across the globe to conform to the indicators and implement changes to obtain world-class status. We examine why HEIs in similar institutional environments are structured and processed differently on the ranking issue with different outcomes. By employing a…

The marketisation of higher education is a global phenomenon in the new millennium as the universities are facing intense competition to manage their financial resources and maintain their academic growth and reputation. Pakistan is also influenced by the globalisation of higher education. In this context, this study is a genre analysis of the…