Study On Evaluation System Of Research Universities' International Competitiveness

As the globalization process deepens, internationalization extends in all sorts of spheres, such as politics, culture and science and technology. In turn, international competition among research universities intensifies, which used to be only at a national level. The research universities are facing ever fiercer competition and new challenges. Thus, new theories are required to explain, analyze and understand the new concerns and puzzles: how to re-position and assess research universities'developmental orientation and potentials; how to integrate resources and capacity buildings; how to seek new paths to develop and enhance its capacity, etc. In response to these questions, this research aims to explore and investigate the meaning of research universities'international competitiveness.As the highest level higher education institutions, the study on research universities'international competitiveness may lead to constructive discussion and effective means to resolve developmental problems at both an institutional level and a national level. This study intends to establish a theoretical framework and evaluation system to interpret and assess research universities'international competitiveness, in order to develop an information platform to analyze research universities'competitiveness, including both strengths and weaknesses. Specifically, this study attempts to solve two core issues: to investigate meanings and nature of research university and its international competitiveness, and to develop an evaluation system to interpret and assess these concepts.Firstly, through reviewing the history and literature on research universities'development, this study defines the nature and features of research universities. Secondly, this research sets up in the context of increasingly fierce international competition among universities, adopts the conceptual frameworks of international competitiveness and higher education, integrates the analysis of the nature of research universities, and constructs a theoretical framework to interpret international competitiveness of research universities. Finally, this research develops an evaluation framework to assess international competitiveness of research universities. Within this evaluation system, eight factors have been identified and their meanings have been explored, that is, talent development, scientific research, social services, teaching force, resources, governance, leadership and international reputation. Both comparable analysis and operational analysis are employed to further select internationally comparable and quantifiable criteria and standards to provide analytical information on and to evaluate international competitiveness of research universities.