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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.

World-class universities, commonly recognized as global research universities or flagship universities, are cornerstone institutions embedded in any academic system and play an important role in developing a nation's competitiveness in the global knowledge economy. The development of world-class universities is high on the policy agenda of various stakeholders across the globe. In the past few years, an increasing number of nations, regions and higher education institutions in both developed and developing countries have joined the same race for academic excellence and have adopted a range of development strategies and implemented various reforms. From a comparative perspective, How World-Class Universities Affect Global Higher Education intends to provide an in-depth picture of excellence initiatives and relevant policies adopted in various nations and regions, and to reflect opportunities and challenges of developing excellence. This book not only represents a contribution to the ongoing discussion on the topic of building world-class universities, but can be seen a continuation of the previous four volumes on this topic—World-Class Universities and Ranking: Aiming beyond Status, The World-Class University as Part of a New Higher Education Paradigm: From Institutional Qualities to Systemic Excellence, Paths to a World-Class University: Lessons from Practices and Experiences, and Building World-Class Universities: Different Approaches to a Shared Goal. All five books will be useful reading for students and academics in higher education generally, in addition to policy makers and informed practitioners.

Within higher education, world-class universities are commonly regarded as elite research universities and play a critical role in developing a nation's competitiveness in the global knowledge economy. An increasing number of countries, regions and higher education institutions in different parts of the world have joined the same battle for academic excellence. While emerging countries and their universities make every effort to enhance their capacity and boost their research performance, the academic superpowers endeavour to maintain - if not further improve- their global positions. Building World-Class Universities: Different Approaches to a Shared Goal intends to provide an in-depth picture of different approaches in pursuit of the shared goal of developing academic excellence, and to reflect the current trends in this field. Divided into three parts, the book covers: • building world-class universities from a national/regional perspective, • managing world-class universities from an institutional perspective, and • measuring world-class universities from a ranking/indicator perspective. This book not only represents a contribution to the ongoing discussion on the topic of building world-class universities, but can be seen as a continuation of the previous three volumes on this topic - “World-Class Universities and Ranking: Aiming beyond Status”, “The World-Class University as Part of a New Higher Education Paradigm: From Institutional Qualities to Systemic Excellence”, and “Paths to a World-Class University: Lessons from Practices and Experiences”. All four books will be useful readings for students and academics in higher education generally, in addition to policy makers and informed practioners.

Within higher education, world-class universities are regarded as elite research universities and play a critical role in developing human resources and generating new knowledge in the context of a knowledge-based economy. Governments around the world have made the operation of their universities at the cutting edge of intellectual and scientific development their policy priority; and top universities make every effort to compete at this global stage.“Paths to A World-Class University” provides insights into recent and ongoing experiences of building world-class universities, both at a national level and at an institutional level. It collects fifteen essays, most of which originated from papers presented at “The Third International Conference on World-Class Universities”, held in November 2009 in Shanghai, China, and organised by the Center for World-Class Universities of Shanghai Jiao Tong University. Divided into two parts, the book: - focuses on the role of world-class universities in national systems; and- looks at institutional experiences and lessons in building world-class universities.This book not only represents a contribution to the ongoing discussion on the topic of building world-class universities, but can be seen a continuation of the previous two volumes on this topic - “World-Class Universities and Ranking: Aiming beyond Status” and “The World-Class University as Part of a New Higher Education Paradigm: From Institutional Qualities to Systemic Excellence”. All three books will be useful reading for students and academics in higher education generally, in addition to policy makers and informed practitioners.